An analysis of USDA AFIDA data shows that 6.3 million acres (90% of long-term leases of agricultural land held by foreign entities) correspond to wind and solar projects, concentrated in Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, New Mexico and Kansas.
An analysis based on data from the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) system of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) concludes that most long-term leases of agricultural land held by foreign entities are tied to wind and solar projects. Long-term leases reported in AFIDA total about 16.3 million acres, nearly a third of all acres reported in the system. After applying the citizenship and country filters, long-term leases held by foreign entities total 6.9 million acres, of which 6.3 million (90%) correspond to projects identified as wind or solar.
The study, prepared by Bruce Sherrick and Juo-Han Tsay and published by farmdoc daily, uses the AFIDA current holdings file as of December 31, 2024. AFIDA is a disclosure law that does not restrict foreign investment, but it requires foreign entities to report any interest in U.S. agricultural land, including leases of 10 years or longer. Lease records are coded separately to allow an independent tabulation.
Of the total 6.3 million acres of wind and solar leases, 5.3 million (85%) are wind projects, 0.7 million (11%) are solar, and 0.25 million (4%) are held by entities whose names refer to both technologies. The study clarifies that a lease does not transfer ownership: when the contract ends, the land remains with its owner. In addition, AFIDA reports the total area of the parcel associated with the lease, not the area actually occupied by turbines or panels.
According to the reported use of each parcel, 76% of the 6.3 million acres is cropland, 17% is pasture, 4% is other agricultural land, and about 1% each corresponds to forest and non-agricultural land. Wind and solar leases show a nearly identical share of cropland, 78% in each case; in Illinois, 98% of the leased acres are cropland. The study warns that these percentages describe the entire parcel and not the area occupied by the facilities: under wind contracts, most of the parcel usually remains in agricultural or livestock production, whereas with solar the project area generally goes out of production for the life of the installation.
Foreign-held wind and solar leases are reported in 555 counties in 42 states. Measured against land in farms in each county, the share is small in most cases: 312 counties are below 1%, another 158 are between 1% and 5%, 83 counties reach at least 5% and only 6 exceed 25%. Since AFIDA reports whole-parcel acreage, these shares should be read as an upper bound on the land actually used by energy facilities.
The geographic pattern follows the country's wind resource. Leases are concentrated in the southern and central Plains (western Oklahoma, northwest and west Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, eastern Colorado and New Mexico), with additional clusters in South Texas, the Dakotas, central Illinois, northern Indiana and western and northern New York. Solar leases are more scattered: the largest acreages are in Texas, Indiana, Oklahoma, Illinois and Nebraska, and solar accounts for most of the leased acres in states outside the top 15.
Among the states, Oklahoma leads the list with almost one million acres, followed by Texas, Nebraska, New Mexico and Kansas. Nationally, leases account for 0.7% of land in farms; Oklahoma posts the highest share among the top 15 states, at 3.1%, followed by New York at 2.6%. In Texas, the 0.9 million acres equal 0.7% of the state's land in farms. Illinois ranks seventh, with 1.4% of its land in farms: 317,451 acres are wind leases and 40,806 acres are solar. The concentration is in the central part of the state, with 133,340 leased acres in McLean County and 48,337 in Logan County; by way of comparison, the leased acres in Illinois are about 14 times larger than the foreign-owned acres in that state.
AFIDA records the country of the foreign investor in each filing. Among these wind and solar leases, Canada accounts for 59% of the acres (3.7 million), followed by Italy (14%), the United Kingdom (6%), Denmark (6%), the Netherlands (5%) and France (4%). Together, ten countries make up 99% of the total, all of them in North America, Europe or Australia. Canada is the largest investor country in 12 of the 15 states on the list; Italy leads in North Dakota and Missouri, and the Netherlands in Colorado. Because most filings are made by project-level companies, the country reported reflects the foreign investor behind the filing and not necessarily where the developer operates.
The study notes that national security concerns have centered on investors from countries considered adversaries of the United States, but in practice nearly all energy-lease acres in foreign hands correspond to investors from Canada and Western Europe. On food security, most leased parcels are cropland, although the leases cover about 0.7% of U.S. land in farms and, under wind contracts, most of each parcel remains in production. Solar projects, by contrast, do take land out of production for the life of the project, and foreign-held solar leases cover about 0.7 million acres of parcel area nationally.
In summary, most long-term leases held by foreign persons or entities correspond to wind and solar projects: 6.3 million acres, about 0.7% of U.S. land in farms. In most counties the share is below 1%, and nearly all the acres are associated with investors from Canada and Western Europe. Because the owner retains title and AFIDA reports whole-parcel acreage, the study recommends analyzing leased acres separately from ownership when assessing foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land.
