A Tennessee farmer leased 100 acres of his century-old family land for solar rather than sell it; in 2026, the 147 MW project went live, and the lease helped keep the farm in the family

For more than a century, the land near Somerville, Tennessee, has remained in the same family. When a solar developer came knocking, farmer Chad Dacus faced a choice that many landowners across rural America are increasingly confronting: sell a piece of the family property, keep farming it or lease it for renewable energy. Dacus chose a fourth option that allowed him to do both, in a way.He leased 100 acres of his family’s land for a utility-scale solar project rather than sell it. Years later, the decision has become part of a much larger energy project: Yum Yum Solar, a 147-megawatt solar facility in Fayette County, Tennessee, officially came online in May 2026, according to data based on the US Energy Information Administration’s power-plant records. For Dacus, however, the most important output was not electricity. It was keeping the land in the family.

A century-old farm meets a new kind of crop

Dacus farms with his father, Chuck, on land that has been passed down through his mother’s side of the family for more than 100 years. When the solar company first approached them, the proposal was not immediately about turning farmland into a power station. It was about finding a way to generate income from land while retaining ownership.“At the beginning it was more about keeping the land in the family,” Dacus told Farm Progress. “This was an opportunity to produce an income and keep the land. And in 30 years, my kids can get something from this.”That long-term thinking became particularly important because farming the land was becoming more difficult. The Dacuses were already facing the prospect of losing about 400 acres of rented farmland as the broader solar development moved forward. Labour was another concern. Chad said that when his father eventually retired, finding enough workers to maintain the operation would be difficult.The solar lease therefore offered something traditional farming could not guarantee: a steady source of income without permanently giving up ownership of the family’s 100 acres.

The 100-acre parcel became part of a much bigger project

The Dacuses’ land became part of Yum Yum Sola, named after the nearby community. When Farm Progress reported on the project in 2022, the development was expected to cover around 4,000 acres in Fayette County and produce approximately 150 MW of electricity. Invenergy was developing the project, with Google expected to purchase the energy to help offset the carbon footprint of its new data centre in Clarksville, Tennessee.The project’s final generating capacity is now listed at 147 MW. EIA-derived plant data shows Yum Yum Solar has one 147-MW solar photovoltaic generating unit that became operational on May 1, 2026. It is operated by Invenergy Services and is connected to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s balancing authority. This puts the project among Tennessee’s larger operating solar facilities.The state’s solar landscape has expanded considerably in recent years. EIA-derived data lists Yum Yum Solar alongside other large projects such as Ridgely Energy Farm, Elora Solar and Graceland Solar.

Why would a farmer lease land instead of selling it?

The distinction between selling and leasing is central to the Dacuses’ decision. Selling the land would provide a one-time transaction and permanently remove it from the family’s ownership. A long-term solar lease, by contrast, allows the family to retain ownership while receiving regular payments.For multigenerational farms, that can make a significant difference. Dacus said the family wanted an income stream that could help pay property taxes and allow the land to be passed down to future generations.There was also a practical consideration. As neighbouring landowners signed solar agreements, the Dacuses’ parcel could have become effectively isolated from the rest of their row-crop operation.Rather than continue trying to farm a smaller and increasingly fragmented piece of land, the lease provided another way to make the property financially useful.The Tennessee project is part of a much broader transformation taking place across the US. As electricity demand grows and utilities add renewable generation, solar companies are increasingly looking at large areas of relatively open land. Farms can be attractive locations because they offer large, relatively flat parcels and access to transmission infrastructure.But that has created a debate within farming communities. Farmers can receive substantially higher and more predictable income from solar leases than they might earn by renting the same land for conventional crops. At the same time, taking productive farmland out of agricultural use for decades raises questions about food production and the future of rural communities.The Dacuses themselves have acknowledged that tension. “We still believe in property rights, but it is troubling that we’re losing productive farmland,” Chuck Dacus told Farm Progress. He also noted that solar could ultimately remove too much farmland from production.The family’s decision, therefore, was not simply an endorsement of covering farmland with solar panels. It was a calculation about the future of one particular family farm.

A different definition of farming

Solar farms can also change what it means to use agricultural land. Farm Progress noted that utility-scale solar installations require significant acreage, with an average of roughly eight acres needed per megawatt of photovoltaic capacity. The Tennessee Valley Authority has also set ambitious solar expansion goals, targeting 10,000 MW of additional solar capacity by 2035.That means the competition between food production and energy production is likely to become more visible in rural areas. Yet some farmers see the two activities as less different than they first appear.Georgia farmer James Lee Adams, who also leased farmland to Invenergy for solar, told Farm Progress that he viewed producing electricity as another form of farming. “Energy is energy,” he said, whether it comes in the form of food or electricity.