Solar power promotion plans, energy market liberalization, and farmland prices – Empirical evidence from Taiwan

Since solar panels are typically built on the roofs of residential housing or large factories, most of the existing studies focus on the relationship between solar panels and residential housing prices. Research on the effects of solar panel policies and farmland prices is rare. This paper provides the first empirical evaluation of solar power promotion plans on farmland prices before and after the liberalization of the energy market using the unique case of Taiwan. Using administrative data on farmland market transactions, we estimate the difference-in-differences model to identify the causal effect of solar power promotion plans on farmland prices. The solar power promotion plan lowers farmland prices by 15.8% and 36.6% before and after the liberalization of the energy market. Moreover, these effects vary based on farmland quality. The negative effect of the solar power promotion plan on farmland prices is more pronounced for low-quality farmland during the post-energy market liberalization period. •We examine the effect of solar farm promotion policy on farmland value in Taiwan.•We examine the role of energy market liberalization on farmland prices.•We find a negative effect of the solar farm policy on farmland prices.•The results vary based on the quality of land.