Published on
COLUMBIA, Mo. (Sept. 3, 2026) – Utility-scale wind and solar projects provide rural economic gains without weakening local agricultural economies, according to a study released today by the Center for Rural Energy Security (CRES), a rural focused think tank at the University of Missouri.
The nationwide research report, “Powering Rural Prosperity: The Local Economic Impact of Utility-Scale Wind and Solar Developments,” puts data to a critical debate in rural communities across America: whether hosting renewable energy infrastructure harms local agriculture. Analyzing extensive data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics, CRES researchers found no evidence that renewable energy expansion negatively impacts farm output, agricultural employment or farm wages.
The report was authored by CRES-affiliated faculty Adrienne Ohler, associate professor; Austin Landini, a center-affiliated research consultant, and Michael Sykuta, CRES director and associate professor. Key findings include:
- Agriculture is not negatively affected, with no meaningful declines in GDP, no significant reductions in agriculture employment, and no evidence of lower agricultural wages
- Wind development produces significant and persistent increases in county GDP, largely driven by the utilities sector
- Solar development has smaller effects on overall economic output, with little evidence of significant increases in county GDP and any positive effects concentrated in utilities and construction
“For counties with wind or solar developments, we found modest positive economic impacts, but the benefits varied across sectors,” said Ohler, the lead author on the study. “More research is needed to understand why renewable energy is sited in some counties while not in others, as those underlying factors may also influence long-term economic growth.”
“Objective, fact-based research like this, produced by our CRES team of scholars, is what policymakers need when analyzing the economic, environmental, health and cultural impacts of energy projects in rural America and energy policy more generally,” said Sykuta. “In alignment with CRES’s mission, we seek to fill the information void about how energy infrastructure – power lines and pipelines; wind turbines and solar panels; coal, gas and nuclear plants – affects the communities where they are located.”
Renewable energy projects are frequently located in rural areas, often on agricultural land. Among debates about such issues as economic growth, tax revenue, and impact on agriculture and rural communities, Powering Rural Prosperityseeks to address gaps in prior research by focusing specifically on rural counties; comparing wind and solar projects directly and examining impacts by economic sector rather than only aggregate measures.
The full report is available online at https://cres.missouri.edu/research-reports
About CRES
The Center for Rural Energy Security (CRES) is the first-of-its-kind energy policy think tank in the U.S. that focuses specifically on understanding the implications of federal and state energy policies and technology innovation for rural America. Housed at the University of Missouri, CRES achieves its mission through conducting objective, unbiased, policy-based research; producing timely policy reports, white papers and op-eds; authoring scholarly academic studies; facilitating contracted research projects for private stakeholders and government agencies; and performing grant- and philanthropic-funded research.
###