Seeds of Opportunity

This report by RMI examines the economic development potential for rural American communities resulting from the expansion of onshore wind and utility-scale solar energy through 2030.

• Renewable energy capacity in the United States is projected to at least double by 2030, with the potential to increase by seven times or more if new policies leverage the falling costs of solar and wind energy.
• Rural communities, which host 99 percent of onshore wind and an increasing portion of utility-scale solar, could see annual revenues from these projects exceed $60 billion by 2030, a figure comparable to the combined revenues of beef, soy, and corn production.
• The analysis estimates that the approximately 600 GW of new wind and solar capacity expected to be installed between 2020 and 2030 will create $220 billion in lifetime value for rural America.

APA

RMI (2021). Seeds of Opportunity. https://rmi.org/resources/seeds-of-opportunity/

Chicago

RMI. Seeds of Opportunity. 2021. https://rmi.org/resources/seeds-of-opportunity/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Seeds of Opportunity |date=26 January 2021 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/seeds-of-opportunity/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2021seeds, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Seeds of Opportunity}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2021}, month = jan, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/seeds-of-opportunity/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }