Private landowners in Missouri will make an estimated $16 million in annual lease payments from solar projects, money that helps families hang on to their land when farm revenues fall short.
Frank Marshall is one of them. He told Advanced Power Alliance that income from leasing part of his property to the Kelso solar project in Scott County has helped him keep his property intact.
“It keeps the land in use,” Marshall said. “That was important to us.”
The Kelso project, whose two stages opened in 2025 and last March, will also provide $2 million in annual tax revenue for the county during its 35-year lifespan.
County officials estimate the project will generate $27 million for local schools. That may help build or renovate facilities in a county district where 75 percent of the buildings were constructed at least 25 years ago, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Marshall’s farm has been in the family’s hands since 1898, when his great-great-great grandfather moved to Southeastern Missouri from Kentucky. Now, the farm is owned by four branches of the family in a structure created by Marshall’s father.
Farming poses many challenges, Marshall said. “We’ve seen corn prices lately that are about where they were in the 1970s. There aren’t many things you can buy today for what they cost fifty years ago. When prices stay low but everything else goes up, it makes it hard to make a profit. And then you’ve got weather, markets, and things happening around the world that you can’t control.”
Selling the land was never an option, he said, and thanks to payments from the Kelso project and Arevon, the developer, the family was able to lease the land and preserve the property.
“When Missouri farmers and landowners have the freedom to use their land to provide for their families and their communities, the entire state benefits,” wrote Jeff Clark, president and CEO of the Advanced Power Alliance, in a March column in The Missouri Times.
Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.
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