Tennessee farmer leased 100 acres for solar and kept century-old farm in family

For more than a century, the land near Somerville, Tennessee, has remained in the same family. When a solar developer came knocking, farmer Chad Dacus faced a choice that many landowners across rural America are increasingly confronting: sell a piece of the family property, keep farming it or lease it for renewable energy. Dacus chose a fourth option that allowed him to do both, in a way.He leased 100 acres of his family's land for a utility-scale solar project rather than sell it. Years later, the decision has become part of a much larger energy project: Yum Yum Solar, a 147-megawatt solar facility in Fayette County, Tennessee, officially came online in May 2026, according to data based on the US Energy Information Administration's power-plant records. For Dacus, however, the most important output was not electricity.