Income comparison
A Real Per-Acre Example
The most direct way to think about this: line up the per-acre numbers from a typical Michigan corn operation against a typical solar lease.
Corn (typical operation)
- 180 bu/ac × $4.50/bu = $810 gross
- − $700 direct cost
- = $110 net profit per acre
Solar lease
$800 per acre per year (typical, no farming costs to net out)
Side by side
What this means
On comparable acres, solar lease income can run several times the net profit from row crops — without weather, input cost, or commodity-price risk. That doesn't make solar the right choice for everyone, but it explains why the math is so attractive to many farmers.