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For farmers and ranchers in Oregon and Washington

Will solar help you keep your farm?

Draw your land on a map. We pull the soil, sunlight, weather and power lines for that spot. Then we lay out your options side by side: keep farming it, lease it for solar, or graze and grow under panels.

Sometimes the answer is keep farming it. We'll tell you that too.

Book a demo callSee how it works
Sheep grazing tall grass between rows of solar panels under a cloudy sky
Sheep grazing between panel rows. Photo: Beau Carter, Southern Sol Grazing Co.
A crowd of farmers and researchers listening to a speaker between rows of solar panelsTwo people smiling at a field day booth beside the Winnie painting

Built with farmers.

More than 50 farmers, ranchers and researchers walked the panels with us and tried the tool at an Oregon field day in July 2026.

The problem

The lease offer shows up before the answers do.

A developer's letter comes with a rent number per acre. It doesn't say what happens to your water, your hay, or what the whole farm earns over twenty years. Too often the call gets made on the developer's numbers and a gut feeling. A lease can tie up land for twenty years or more.

The numbers come from the buyer.

The lease rate is what a developer offers. Nobody on your side has checked it against what the land brings in now.

Grid distance can end a project.

If the nearest line that can take the power is miles away, hookup costs can sink the project. The tool checks that first.

Your crop and soil change the answer.

Dryland hay and irrigated berries get different answers. A county average can't tell them apart. We run the numbers for your site.

Sample answers

Different farms get different answers.

The answer comes from your land, your crop and the grid near you. Here's what four of them can look like.

Fit

Grazing under panels brings in more than farming as-is.

The yield numbers are still a rough guide. Your advisor, utility and county decide whether it gets built.

Sheep pasture near an existing power line

Caution

Grazing under panels could work. The size of your mower is the problem.

Wide rows, a taller layout, or letting the sheep do all the mowing would fix it.

Hay ground with a 14 ft mower

Not a fit

Keep farming it. Both solar options come out behind.

The nearest line that could take the power is more than 3 miles away.

Irrigated ground far from the grid

We don't know yet

We don't know yet.

Water and yield decide this one, and those numbers for this crop aren't ready. We won't guess.

A crop the research hasn't covered

Sample screens from the tool. Your land gets its own answer.

How it works

Start with a map of your land.

  1. Draw your land

    Tap the corners of the land you're considering on a map.

    Map with a field boundary drawn around 39 acres

  2. We fill in the rest

    Soil, sunlight, weather, slope and nearby power lines come from public data for that spot. Anything we fill in carries a tag, and you can change any of it.

    Public data for the site: soil, drainage, crop history and sunlight, each with a confidence tag

  3. Compare your options

    Keep farming as-is, lease for solar, grazing under panels, or crops between panel rows. Side by side, twenty years out.

    Side-by-side table comparing keep farming as-is, solar-only lease and grazing under panels over 20 years

  4. Get the answer first

    Fit, caution, not a fit, or we don't know yet. Then the reasons, and what would change them.

    A caution result naming the one thing holding the plan back, with fixes to try
What you get

The three numbers that decide it.

Tap any number to see how sure we are. When we don't know, we say what would tell us.

Solar income per acre, each year

What the panels would bring in, next to what those acres bring in now.

Change in water

Shade cuts evaporation, so less water may go in. This is our strongest number, built on university water research.

Change in yield

How much the ground grows under and between the panels. The research is early, so treat it as a rough guide.

High

We measured it, or it's public record for your land.

Moderate

Regional numbers, close to your farm but not from it.

Low

Early research. Treat it as a rough guide.

Unknown

We don't know yet, and here is what would tell us.

Where we stand

Built for the farmer's side of the table.

Built with farmers

Farmers helped shape it, and farmers test it as we build.

No leads, no listings

We don't sell your name to a developer. Nobody calls you after.

Grounded in research

The water and yield models come from university field research.

Your land, your call

Take the numbers to your banker, your lawyer or your family. The decision stays yours.

Heather Alvis with "Winnie," acrylic and oil.
A ten-minute story for grown-ups

The Farm That Stayed

Winnie the cow tells what happened when three farms in her valley ran their numbers.

"Dolores, two counties over, got a flat no. The hookup to the substation cost too much, and her irrigated ground was too valuable as-is. A month later, Ray's cousin got the opposite. Three farms, three different answers. That's when Ray started trusting it."
Cover of The Farm That Stayed, a storybook told by Winnie the cow.Read Winnie's story
Sun Hoodies · Pre-orders open October 6

Resilient by Design

UPF sun hoodies (some call them sunshirts) for people who work outside all day. Each one carries original artwork by Heather Alvis of solar on working land.

Pre-order a Sun HoodieLimited run. Sold by Electra.
Meet us in person

Find us at RE+ in Las Vegas, November 16 to 19.

No booth this year. Find us on LinkedIn or the attendee list, email hello@goelectra.io, or book a time below and we'll meet you there.

Book a time at RE+
The team

Who's building it

Portrait of Heather Alvis

Heather Alvis

Head of Invention

Founder of Electra and a painter for about thirty years. Leads product and design for Farm Solar Fit, from the first map screen to the farmer's answer.

Portrait of John Sherwin

John Sherwin

Head of Technology

Electra co-founder. Leads the technical build, the data behind every number, and how the models fit together.

Portrait of Cassie Decker

Cassie Decker

Head of Strategy

Electra co-founder. Brings regenerative ranching, land rehab and real estate experience, and leads the story and outreach.

For partners and funders

Help us put this in front of every farmer weighing a lease.

We're building Farm Solar Fit with farmers in Oregon and Washington, with university research partners behind the water and yield models. Our USDA proposal is under review. Farmers will always use it free.

Talk with us about partnering

We're looking for

Research partners with crop, water or grazing data from sites with panels.
Extension offices, SBDCs and farm groups to bring the tool to their members.
Pilot farms willing to test it on their own land and tell us what's wrong.
Funders and investors backing a farmer-first tool that stays free for farmers.
Book a demo call

See it on your land.

We'll walk through the tool on a map of your place, or one like it, and answer your questions. If solar is a bad match for your land, you'll hear it from us.

Book a demo call