How the oil capital of the US welcomed a solar power boom
A Texas farmer has successfully transitioned part of his land from traditional agriculture to a large-scale solar farm. The lease provides financial stability during droughts and highlights the broader shift in Texas toward renewable energy production.
Why it matters
It illustrates the economic intersection of traditional farming and the green energy transition in the heart of US oil country.
Image source, Steve Cargil Image caption, Farmer Steve Cargil is now paid $200,000 a year for hosting a solar farm on his land
Steve Cargil's family has farmed the flat, dry land around Uvalde, a small city in southwest Texas, since 1953.
Cargil, 67, had always assumed that one of his three children would eventually take it over, the way he had from his father.
But that assumption took a hit one night in 2018 after a violent hailstorm.
Cargil and his son, Ryan, had spent months nursing crops of cabbage and onions to harvest. Then a storm rolled through and destroyed them overnight.
"I remember my son saying, 'Dad, I just don't know if I can do this. You do everything right, and we work so hard, and you come out one morning and it's all gone'," Cargil says.
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