Turn acres you aren’t using into decades of contracted income.
If you own rural, marginal or industrial land near available grid capacity, it may be able to host a utility-scale solar project. Long-term lease payments, nothing out of pocket, and the land stays yours throughout.
No cost to apply•No
obligation •
You keep ownership•137
projects delivered since 2006
Annual payments
Fixed lease income paid every year of the term, on contract
20–35 years
Long-term agreements with built-in annual escalation
$0 out of pocket
CarbonFree carries design, permitting, build, insurance and removal
You keep the title
It is a lease, not a sale. The land stays yours throughout
Why landowners lease to us
Income that doesn’t depend on a good year.
For most owners, a solar lease earns more per acre than leaving marginal ground idle — without weather risk, input costs or labour.
01
Income that doesn’t move with the weather
Fixed annual payments that don’t depend on commodity prices, rainfall or markets. You know what you’ll earn, year after year, for the length of the term.
02
You keep the land
We lease it. You retain ownership and, where applicable, your mineral rights. At the end of the term the equipment comes out and the ground is returned to you restored — and that obligation is written into the contract.
03
Nothing for you to manage
CarbonFree handles feasibility, engineering, interconnection, permitting, construction, maintenance, insurance and decommissioning. No expense and no work on your end.
04
Only the acres that make sense
Lease the portion that works and keep using the rest. Low-yield, awkward or unworked ground is often the best fit for solar — the parcels that earn least are frequently the ones we want.
Get your own advice before you sign
We encourage every landowner to review the agreement with their own lawyer or financial advisor, and to confirm the property tax treatment with their accountant. A lease that only makes sense when it is explained by the person offering it is not a lease worth signing.
4,250
acres already under option in Canada
Does your land qualify?
The parcels that earn least are often the ones we want.
We are actively securing land for a second Ontario portfolio of more than a gigawatt. Ground that is awkward to work, low-yield or sitting idle is frequently the best candidate — what matters most is what is nearby, not what grows on it.
Non-agricultural or marginal land, with agricultural parcels considered case by case
Acceptable topography — reasonably flat, well-drained, few obstructions
Available interconnection capacity nearby, which is usually the deciding factor
Industrial and brownfield sites considered case by case
Typically larger parcels suited to utility-scale development
How it works
From first enquiry to first payment, in four steps.
Step 1
Tell us about your land
Share the location and rough acreage. It takes two minutes and costs nothing.
Step 2
We assess the fit
We evaluate the parcel for sunlight, grid access, topography and permitting — then come back with whether it qualifies and what it could support.
Step 3
Review your offer
We walk you through payment, term, escalators and protections in plain language. Take your time and review it with your own lawyer or advisor.
Step 4
Sign, and start earning
Once signed, CarbonFree manages design, permits and construction. Payments begin per the agreed schedule and continue for the life of the lease.
Case study: A lease in practice
What it looks like on one Ontario farm.
The specifics differ on every parcel, but the shape of the arrangement — and the pace of it — does not.
Dufferin County, Ontario
A 240-acre farm with a low-yield back parcel that had been rented out for grazing at a rate that barely covered its own property tax.
Farmland of the kind described — not the parcel itself.
leased, from a 240-acre holding
58 acres
leased, from a 240-acre holding
lease term, with renewal options
30 yr
lease term, with renewal options
from first call to signed option
7 mo
from first call to signed option
The parcel sat at the back of the property: wet in spring, thin soil, awkward to reach with equipment. It had been in and out of grazing for a decade. What made it work for solar had nothing to do with any of that — a distribution feeder ran along the road allowance with capacity available on it.
CarbonFree walked the site, confirmed the interconnection, and put an option agreement in front of the owner within two months. The family took it to their own lawyer and their accountant before signing anything. The remaining 180 acres stayed in production throughout, and the access road built for the project is now the all-weather route to the back of the farm.
“The part of the farm that gave us the most trouble is now the part we can count on. It pays the same in a drought year as it does in a good one.”
Your tenants, every step of the way
The people who walk your field are the ones who build it.
A solar lease runs for decades, so the question that matters is who is on the other side of it. CarbonFree was founded in Toronto in 2006 and much of the senior team joined within the first two years. Development, financing, construction and operation all sit under one roof — the person who first visits your property is not handing you to a stranger at the next stage.
Daniel Soper
Chief Executive Officer
As CEO, Dan leads CarbonFree’s overall business including its strategic, transactional and financial activities.
