Land Use

New York State has a large amount of former agricultural land that could be used for renewable energy, reforestation, increased agricultural production or other uses. 

Our research program has evaluated this resource to provide information to stakeholders about the amount of such lands and their production potential. We recently collaborated with The Nature Conservancy to provide an updated estimate of the amount of such lands throughout New York State (Richardson et al. 2023, see below). 

We are currently assessing the amount of current and former agricultural land that has been used for solar development throughout New York State. We are also assessing the amount of agricultural land likely to be used for future solar development to help meet New York State’s ambitious net zero GHG emission mandate under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.