For some Maryland farmers and rural landowners, the mailers seem to come in habitually, promising thousands of dollars per acre to lease their land so it can become a solar array.

“Lease for Solar, Harvest Profits,” one company writes. “You can help power the future of our country,” writes another.

The letters offer $4,500 per acre, $5,000 or even $7,000, sometimes with lucrative sign-on bonuses, too.

Some farmers worry it’s a pressure that Maryland’s agricultural communities cannot withstand. They fear that thousands of acres of Maryland farmland could soon be producing solar energy, rather than corn, wheat and soybeans — potentially disrupting a delicate agro-economy in places like the Eastern Shore, where it’s built around feeding the poultry industry.

And they think that the law passed by the General Assembly this year — setting uniform standards for solar facilities and limiting counties’ ability to set solar zoning rules — will only make matters worse.

“I got three, four solar invitations yesterday in the mail. I’ve had telephone calls. I’ve had different companies come see me,” said Howard Dean, a Queen Anne’s County farmer, during an interview in late May. “I’m not interested. I want the farmland to stay as it is, and for our families in the future to have this beautiful county — and this Eastern Shore.”

In particular, they worry about a provision in the bill, which sets a ceiling on solar projects at 5% of any one county’s agricultural “priority preservation areas.” But some farmers worry the limit is set far too high.

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