Organization formed to help landowners with renewable energy projects

CHICAGO — Farmland owners looking for guidance on renewable energy projects can get assistance from the newly formed national association, Renewable Energy Farmers of America.

“More than 90% of the development for renewable energy happens on private land and most of that is happening on farmland,” said Jeff Risley, executive director of REFA.

“Farmers are the ones that are enabling this whole thing to happen, but they have no one to turn to,” said Risley, whose family farms in Kansas. “Our mission is not only rooted in helping farmers navigate this, but also to protect their private property rights.”

Work to organize the group started about a year ago.

“This was an idea from a bunch of farmers and developers who said the only constituent group that doesn’t have representation for large-scale developments is the farmer-rancher landowner,” Risley said.

“We did research last spring and talked to about 100 farmers to see if they would be interested in paying dues for basically a commodity organization, but the crop is renewable energy,” he said. “It was overwhelming. They were absolutely interested because farmers trust other farmers.”

As a result, the formation of the group started by networking with the renewable energy industry and the agricultural industry.

“We started recruiting our board, wrote bylaws, developed a strategic plan — everything you need as a non-profit organization,” Risley said.

“We launched two weeks ago and the dues are $250 per year,” he said at the 2025 Solar Farm Summit that was hosted by the American Farmland Trust. “We are involved with four technologies — wind, solar, battery storage and high voltage transmission.”

The group started to build services before launching.

“So, once we recruited members we would be able to serve them,” Risley said.

“Now we are recruiting farmers and ranch landowners and it doesn’t matter the size of your operation,” he said. “You can be from anywhere in the country and already hosting a utility-scale project or someone who has been approached by a company and is interested.”

REFA offers services that include peer-to-peer networking through in-person meetings or online discussions, as well as mentorship programs.

“The second area is advocacy. If they have an active project or they are working with a developer to make it happen and there is opposition, we can assist them,” Risley said.

“We offer professional services such as non-legal lease review,” he said. “When a developer gives you a lease, most of us have never seen one of those before, so we can help farmers with tax and accounting questions.”

REFA has partnered with Pinion.

“That’s an agricultural tax and business advisory company that is going to help us advise our members,” Risley said.

Providing education about renewable energy projects is an important function of the association.

“This is a new area for most landowners so we will do webinars about agrivoltaics and what happens during repowering or decommissioning,” the executive director said. “We are at the nexus of agriculture and renewables.”

Agrivoltaics, Risley said, is a burgeoning industry.

“About 99% of it is happening with solar and sheep grazing and about 1% is more crop related,” he said. “However, the research is going crazy and they are looking at all kinds of things.”

REFA, Risley stressed, is not pro-renewables or anti-fossil fuels.

“We are pro-farmer opportunity and maybe this is one of the ways we can help reverse the trend of losing family farms,” he said. “Developers are going to be coming, so farmers need to make the right decision for their land, their livelihood and their legacy.”

For farmers who are questioning renewable energy, Risley advises them to keep an open mind and talk to other farmers who have been through it.

“Figure out if it will work for you because the development of renewable energy is not going to stop,” he said. “The demand for electricity is going up and we have to fill that demand with something.”

The new association plans to work with other commodity organizations, Farm Bureau, Farmers Union and Extension personnel.

“We are happy to deliver education in conjunction with them,” the executive director said.

In addition to his farming background, Risley has also worked with renewable energy developers.

“Developers can’t be members of our organization,” Risley said. “But we are recruiting some of the top developers so they can advise our membership, board and leadership.”

“Developers have all the power when they come into the relationship,” he said. “We want to raise the power and knowledge of farmers so they can meet in the middle.”

For more information about REFA, call 630-299-8615 or go to www.renewableenenergyfarmers.org.