Clean energy is an economic engine for rural America, providing new income sources for farmers, new tax revenues for rural communities and good-paying jobs for 440,000 clean energy workers who live in rural counties.
If Congress repeals federal clean energy tax credits, rural America suffers.
Nearly 100 major clean energy related factories and an estimated 30,000 jobs announced in rural communities could be lost across America.
Farmers could see fewer opportunities to lease unproductive lands for solar and wind projects. And communities will see fewer local tax revenues from clean energy projects.
See below to hear stories from rural voices on the ground in Colorado (6,599 rural clean energy jobs), Georgia (11,980), and North Carolina (19,772) about the jobs, stability, and economic development boost renewable energy is bringing to their farms and local communities.
Our country’s farmland sustains us—and we can ensure it stays that way with renewable energy infrastructure.
CREDIT: Werner Slocum / NREL
A new cash crop?
Across Rural America, farmers are discovering a new cash crop that can help offset their energy needs and volatility, provide new revenue for local services, create local jobs in their communities, and maximize the profitability of their land.
“It’s a hard life sometimes, but it’s a good life. If we could have another source of income it would make our farm more sustainable. With solar energy our farm is more sustainable.”
Evan Williams, farmer in Yasmin County, North Carolina
Supporting our communities with new tax revenue
The tax revenue generated from renewable energy infrastructure goes straight back into our communities—from fixing roads to improving our schools to expanding emergency services.
“The tax revenue [from solar projects] helps support everything in the county…it provides the income streams for roads and fire protection and police protection and all the infrastructure in the county”
Joe Bostick, Chair of the Mitchell County Economic Development Authority in Camilla, Georgia
Meeting our energy needs
With demand for energy soaring nationally, renewable energy empower rural communities to help us meeting our growing energy needs—and reap the economic benefits.
“The demand for electricity has never been higher. It’s skyrocketed in the last 3 or 4 years…The demand for power so high, they’ve got to supply it in some means…And, I think that solar and battery storage, systems will be part of the solution to that.
Joe Bostick, Chair of the Mitchell County Economic Development Authority in Camilla, Georgia
Coexisting with the rural landscape and lifestyle
Renewable energy is just another way for rural communities and farmers to harness the natural resources of their land and can exist side-by-side with traditional farming operations.
“Being in the poultry business, [solar] takes zero footprint. Our roof space [of the chicken houses] are wasted. So now we’re actually able to utilize that roof space and turn it into a productive area of the poultry facility”
Scott McRae, Owner of JS McRae Farms in Alma, Georgia
Helping small farmers thrive
“Having the wind project was a huge boon to the dry-land guys, just because it’s a constant passive revenue stream that you can budget on,”
Levi Kokes, who raises about 350 head of cattle and grows wheat, sorghum and proso millet on 7,000 acres on his family’s fifth generation land in Crook, Colorado.
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Continuing job growth
Since 2021, renewable energy jobs in technologies like solar, wind, and geothermal have grown nearly 50 percent in rural areas, far outpacing every other sector’s job growth rate including fossil fuels. And the clean energy industry overall in rural America has increased employment 13 percent in the last four years — now employing nearly 450,000 workers.
Investing in renewable energy will keep creating new, good-paying jobs of the future in our communities.
Renewable Energy Jobs in Rural America (2021-2024)
E2 Clean Jobs America
Large-Scale Clean Energy Project Announcements (2022-2025)
E2 Clean JobEconomy Works Tracking
Attracting new private investment
Federal clean energy tax credits are bringing private investment and large-scale clean energy projects to rural America at an unprecedented rate. Federal clean energy tax incentives have spurred development of more than 350 major clean economy projects nationwide; one out of every four of these major clean energy factories and projects are in rural areas.
For More Information
On clean energy jobs, including the 440,000 clean energy jobs in rural America, visit E2’s Clean Jobs America report.
On how federal clean energy tax credits have brought new private investment and large-scale clean energy projects all across the country, including in rural America, check out E2’s Clean Economy Works tracking.