Consumers Energy is buying 800 acres of farm land in Oceana County less than a year after the utility consumed 1,900 acres to construct a solar farm in neighboring Muskegon County.
Consumers spokesperson Tracy Wimmer told MLive the Jackson-based utility won rights to purchase 800 acres of Todd Greiner Farms in Hart for $5.6 million at an auction last weekend.
“At this point, we’re still determining potential future uses,” Wimmer said. “Once we have more information and details about that and figure what makes sense with the land, that’s when we’ll move forward.”
The deal is part of 900 acres of farm land previously used to grow cherries, apples and vegetables that were auctioned as the 30-year-old farm shifts operations to marketing and selling produce grown by others.
Todd Greiner told The Packer “by focusing on reducing our total acreage and focusing on sales and marketing, we can better target our investments in time and resources and add value to better serve Michigan’s growers and ensure that the exceptional products from our region, like asparagus, sweet corn and pumpkins continue to reach customers nationwide.”
The site is about an hour drive north of 1,900 acres Consumers is leasing from Muskegon County, where the utility has installed solar arrays it predicts will generate enough energy to power 40,000 homes.
That $350 million solar project, along with others in Kent, Kalamazoo, Jackson, and Calhoun counties, are aimed at helping Consumers’ meet a long-term goal of utilizing 8,000 megawatts of solar by 2040, and is expected to be in operation by 2026 with six full-time employees.
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The solar projects are one component of Consumers’ focus on increasing renewable energy sources to 63% of output by 2040 to comply with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s climate goals, which call for 100% carbon neutrality by 2050.
An area producer who asked Michigan Farm News to remain anonymous said the Oceana County sale “caught everyone off guard.”
“A lot of people are worried about the tax base now,” he said. “If you’ve got 200 acres of land next to this, what’s this going to do for land prices, land rent, tax increases, and the availability of dirt that might lie next door to this? Realistically, in farming, we can’t compete with Consumers Energy.”
Data from the USDA shows the average cost of farm real estate in Michigan was $6,310 in 2024, while sales information from Miedema Auctioneering Inc. shows Consumers paid about $7,000 per acre for the former Greiner farmland.
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Michael DeRuiter, an area fruit grower and District 7 director for Michigan Farm Bureau, told Farm News “a lot of growers are frustrated” with the situation.
“This is why local control over zoning decisions is so important. We lost the local control over zoning issues in December of 2023, and this is what we get,” he said. “There are a lot of question marks right now in the local community.”
The 2023 law, approved by a Democratic government trifecta, went into effect in November to create a mechanism for wind, solar, and battery storage developers facing local opposition to gain zoning approvals directly from the Michigan Public Service Commission, which is comprised of three members appointed by Whitmer.
The change is intended to bolster the governor’s climate goals at a time when many local governments face strong public opposition to renewable energy projects.
Voters in November elected a Republican majority to the state House, and Rep. Greg Alexander, R-Carsonville, introduced a two-bill package last month to reverse the 2023 legislation and restore local control.
“People in many areas of the state, including in our region, are clear that they don’t want this type of development in their communities and feel these laws established the heavy hand of government directly into their lives,” Alexander said in a statement.
“Local communities should have the final say on whether they want wind and solar sites within their borders,” he said. “The Michigan Green New Deal that was imposed on local governments last session stripped locals of their authority to make such decisions and it amounted to a total lack of respect for the will of the people.”
The lawmaker notes more than 200,000 acres are required to meet Whitmer’s “accelerated and impractical energy mandates.” Michigan currently has 17,000 acres occupied by wind and solar, and rural areas will likely be the target for the expected growth, he said.
The bills come as 75 counties and townships are pursuing a lawsuit against Whitmer’s MPSC that aims to vacate the commission’s order implementing the new rules.
Michael Homier, an attorney with the Foster Swift law firm representing the plaintiffs, applauded HB 4027-28 in a recent statement.
“These bills send a clear message: Michigan communities should not have to rely on appointed state bureaucrats who think they know better deciding where renewable energy facilities should be located in individual unique communities. One size does not fit all,” Homier said. “Local governments know their communities best, and these bills restore the balance of power to ensure decisions reflect local priorities and values.”
That power struggle plays into a broader decades-long dynamic of development consuming farm land across the United States that could result in the loss of up to 24.4 million acres by 2040, according to a 2022 “Farms Under Threat” report from the American Farmland Trust.
The report ranked Michigan 10th for “states with the most acres of Nationally Significant agricultural land projected to be converted to urban and highly developed and low-density residential uses between 2016 and 2040.”
Under the report’s “business as usual” scenario, Michigan could lose 304,000 acres by 2040, a figure that could be reduced to 163,400 with “better built cities,” or explode to 446,000 with “runaway sprawl.”