I used to think solar access easements were for homesteaders with fancy off-grid setups who wanted legal protection for their hobby. Changed my mind completely after watching a buddy buy a promising 40-acre parcel in southern Utah, spend serious money on a solar array, and then watch the neighbor plant a windbreak of fast-growing cottonwoods right along the shared property line two years later. No easement, no recourse, panels shading out by hour three every afternoon come summer.
If you're buying rural land with any intention of living off-grid — even part-time — solar access isn't just an energy question. It's a property value question. An independence question. And once your neighbor has trees in the ground, the law is almost always on their side unless you locked something down at closing.
Most rural real estate folks won't bring this up unless you ask. It's not on their checklist.
Anybody else tried to negotiate a solar access easement during purchase and hit resistance from the seller? Curious how that conversation went.