This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Seamus Fitzgerald hears a lot of opinions about solar power. As the associate director of real estate at OneEnergy Renewables, a solar energy developer, he approaches farmers and other landowners across the Midwest with proposals to lease their properties for solar projects. Some landowners are excited about being part of the shift to clean energy. Others are hostile to the idea of putting rows of gleaming panels on their land.
Fitzgerald manages to convince many farmers by explaining the simple economics of leasing their land for solar power. “At the end