Page 10 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 4 - Fall 2023

Acres of Land Converted to Solar Array Development in Georgia
Land Type
Total Acres
% of Total Acres
Open Water
Barren Land
Grasslands 3,536 12%
acres of agricultural land were converted to utility-scale solar. Of that, roughly 20,000 acres were fields and croplands, and 5,000 acres were forests. While solar only accounts for a small percent- age of the 2.5 million acres converted to development since 1970, its exponential growth is on track to take a large share of development in the future.
“That is not an insignificant number of acres, and we know that it’s a grow- ing and emerging field,” said Moore. “Now is absolutely the time for a multi- tude of industries to work with the solar industry to think about solar siting, land management decommissioning and what happens to the land once solar utility is removed and no longer viable or desired at a particular location.”
So, the challenge presents itself — how do we address land-use change and the sprawl of development so that it is sustainable and protects our natural resources, particularly forests?
The data she shared confirms that, as a state, “we have not grappled with how we provide for housing, places of employment, modes of transportation, and other types of developed land cover
0
0 0%
0%
Developed
3
0%
Forest
4,785
16%
Pasture/Hay
1,798
6%
Cultivated Crops
20,139 67%
Wetlands
0
0%
Total 30,261
-
to any type of development, we have to consider that pretty much permanent,” said Moore. “How often do we see something bulldozed, infrastructure pulled up and something replanted? We don’t really see that. We certainly don’t see it on a mass scale. So, these decisions about land and these conversions to development, we must contemplate as being almost permanent.”
Protecting Land as
Its Uses Evolve
The Georgia Conservancy has designated development as the number-one threat to agriculture and forested land acres. One form of development is permeating agri- cultural and forested land use quicker than others: utility-scale solar.
From 2012-2022, more than 30,000
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