Relating to commercially owned solar panel field installation on agricultural land

This bill relates to commercially owned solar panel field installation on agricultural land. The bill defines “agricultural land” to mean land that is suitable for farming. The bill defines “corn suitability rating” (CSR) to mean Iowa state university extension and outreach’s corn suitability rating index which determines the potential for row-crop productivity for a parcel of land. The bill defines “commercially owned solar panel” or “solar panel field” to include corporately owned devices or structural features that collect and convert solar radiation into other energy. The bill provides that the owner or manager of agricultural land shall not install a commercially owned solar panel field unless the solar panel field has a CSR of or lower, the solar panel field is at least one-half mile from the next solar panel field, and the solar panel field is located at least 1,250 feet from the nearest neighboring landowner.