Holden • Greg Kesler’s sprawling ranch in Millard County has more than doubled in size over the past decade, stretching across a large swath of high desert land.

He built his operation piece by piece, but what’s helped keep it afloat isn’t cattle or training roping horses. It’s solar.

About 1,100 acres of his Double Dollar Ranch are covered in a patchwork of solar panels. He leases the land to solar developers that built and own the panels, and the passive income is a welcome windfall.

It’s allowed Kesler to buy up surrounding land, expanding his ranch into a kind of private oasis.

“It’s just been huge for us,” Kesler said. “Our solar projects [are] on land that was pretty low production anyway. And so instead of producing grass for cows, we’re producing power for homes.”

At a time when many Utah farmers say rising costs are squeezing margins, Kesler said the solar income has provided a critical buffer — one that can help at-risk ranches across the state, even in fast-growing areas, like Cache County.

The idea took shape years ago, he said, while working on a project in Hawaii. There, he saw a solar farm being built and wondered whether the model could work at home.

“I realized that everything we needed was right here on the ranch,” he said. “We had a main trunk line, transmission line, and we had a large substation.”

Once the panels went in, he said, solar quickly became the most profitable part of his business.

His son, Landon Kesler, has since turned that experience into a business of his own, where he maintains solar panels on their ranch and travels to service projects elsewhere.

“We couldn’t even come close to having the same income doing anything else in agriculture as we’re making producing power,” Greg Kesler said.

Solar farms pay taxes

In rural Utah, solar is also reshaping school budgets.

The idea isn’t new: More than 20 years ago, Edwin Stafford was telling anyone who would listen that “wind power can fund schools.”

The Utah State University marketing professor put the phrase on billboards, and his then-4-year-old daughter helped spread the message, handing out sticky notepads with the slogan at the state Capitol.

As the campaign explained, wind farms generate property tax revenue — paid for by the turbine developer or owner — which can then fund school districts.

“At the time, about 75% of real property taxes went to the local school district,” he said.

Stafford, who studies marketing renewable energy, said that same concept applies to solar, which started gaining popularity about a decade after wind.

In Juab County, the idea is already playing out.

On a hillside in Mona, visible from Interstate 15, a solar farm with more than 200,000 panels generates about 80 megawatts of electricity — enough to power more than 25,000 homes.

During growing season, more than 500 sheep graze under and around the panels to maintain the vegetation.

The Clover Creek solar project, which became operational in 2021, has already generated over $1.03 million in property tax revenue — about half of which went to the Juab School District.

Over its 20-year lifespan, the project is expected to make $5.7 million.

New school computers, a swim team and more

When the project was first proposed, Juab School District Superintendent Kodey Hughes said he and other school board leaders were “skeptical.”

That’s because AES, the developer and owner, had asked the district to agree to a special tax arrangement called a “community reinvestment area.”

The deal redirected a portion of upfront property tax revenue to support the project itself. But long term, it was supposed to generate even more revenue for counties, school districts and other taxing entities.

“At first, I wasn’t a fan,” Hughes said.

But, he said, the funding has already made a difference.

The district has used the extra money to launch a swim team and invest in computers, 3D printers, robotics equipment and a gaming club, he said.

“Those are things that we, of course, want to do, and we probably would have made plans to do, but in a district our size, we have to wait,” Hughes said. “But we were able to get there much faster because of the flexibility we had from some of these dollars from that solar project.”

Amanda Smith, vice president of external affairs for AES, said solar projects tend to have a light footprint on communities while still contributing significant tax dollars.

“We’re a quiet neighbor in terms of development,” she said. “We’re a very small burden on the municipality or the county in terms of services, but we do provide a pretty large tax base and employment in the community.”

New law restricts solar

While ranchers like Kesler have embraced solar, others remain wary of how large arrays of black panels are changing Utah’s landscape — and what they mean for Utah’s farmland.

Those concerns surfaced during Utah’s latest legislative session, when lawmakers passed a bill sponsored by St. Rep. Colin Jack, R-St. George, that changes how solar projects on agricultural land qualify for tax incentives.

The law narrows access to certain tax breaks, with the goal of discouraging large-scale solar development on productive farmland and keeping more land in agricultural use, which Kesler says will greatly deter solar developers.

“They dictated what we the landowner can do with our land,” Kesler said. “If we want to farm solar rather than alfalfa, that’s we the landowners right. That shouldn’t be a legislative decision.”

Despite the added hurdles, Kesler said he wants to continue to educate others on the benefits of solar so they too can profit.

Looking out at his ranch in Holden, Kesler said he’s proud of what he has built and how solar has helped expand his operation. The ranch still runs cattle and horses, but it is also hosts team ropings and runs an internship program.

With solar, the fourth-generation rancher said he’s still doing what he loves — just in a different way.

“That’s why I love the fact they call it solar farms, or farming solar,” he said, “and that’s truly the case.”

“We couldn’t even come close to having the same income doing anything else in agriculture as we’re making producing power.”

GREG KESLER | Holden rancher who leases about 1,100 acres for solar power generation