The Navy is looking to develop a renewable energy generation project at the former Naval Academy Dairy Farm in Gambrills in an effort to meet federal carbon-free electricity goals.

The 857-acre property, tucked into a rural pocket of Gambrills, is home to hundreds of acres of lush farmland and numerous historic buildings, three of which are occupied by current farm caretakers. Located just off Route 175 and Route 3, a residential community directly borders its eastern side.

But the land could eventually become home to solar panels if the property is leased to a developer for energy generation, and the Navy is currently seeking proposals to determine what that could look like.

“One of many kind of good things about a solar farm is that the maintenance and the amount of people you need to maintain it is very minimal,” said Capt. Chris Schwarz, commanding officer of Naval Support Activity Annapolis. “Moving forward, we’d like to keep most things in an agricultural state.”

Federal statute requires that any lease of the former dairy farm property maintain its rural and agricultural nature.

The request for proposals, issued in May, indicates that in addition to solar panels, the Navy is open to the integration of agrivoltaics — the pairing of solar with agriculture, creating energy and providing space for crops, grazing and native habitats under and between panels — with local crop cultivation, farming ventures and use by local organizations or nonprofits.Proposals from interested developers are due Sept. 12.

NSA Annapolis will host an information session and community conversation about the dairy farm on Aug. 6 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Crofton High School. Though attendees can talk with Navy experts about the project, there will not be an opportunity for public testimony. Those interested in attending must register online by Friday. Questions can be submitted in advance.

Ahead of the session, at least one farmer who works the land is voicing concerns.

For Jacob Chorder, the co-owner of De Novo Farm, a horse farm that leases a portion of the land, frustrations lie in the lack of communication from Navy officials — a sentiment he says other tenants share — as well as a perceived lack of awareness of what he and others have invested in the property.

Though Chorder has worked to maintain the historic property, he doesn’t feel that he has “much of a right” to tell the Navy what to do with the land. He worries about the future of his business if solar panels are installed there, calling the uncertainty “discouraging” and “disheartening.”

“I think it’s a shame to do any of that on what is viable cropland, especially in Maryland when both the horse industry and agricultural industry are in decline,” he said. “I think that’s not a great use of the land.”

The land has long been used for agricultural purposes.

Throughout the 1700s and 1800s, it was a plantation known as Howard’s Adventure that used slaves for tobacco farming. Members of the Hammond family, who owned the plantation, are buried in a small cemetery, while stones in front of the former manor house are said to be the site of slave auctions, according to the Hammond-Harwood House Museum.

However, an NSA Annapolis spokesperson said no evidence of slave burials or an auctioning stone was found in cultural resource investigations of the dairy farm.

Developers could propose to build in the property’s historic areas, but the Navy would need to review such a proposal to determine if it complies with the National Historic Preservation Act.

The Navy purchased the land in the early 1900s with the intention of building a dairy farm to provide midshipmen with safe, fresh milk. At its peak, it produced 700 to 1,000 gallons of milk daily. After dairy farm operations ended in 1998, the property was leased to Horizon Organic Farm and Maryland Sunrise Farm.

The land was then leased to Anne Arundel County in 2008. Today, five tenants call the farm home, including Maryland Sunrise Farm, which leases more than 700 acres, the Anne Arundel County branch of the University of Maryland Extension program, Anne Arundel County 4-H, De Novo Farm and the Maryland Corn Maze.

The county’s sublease with Maryland Sunrise Farm ends Dec. 31. Subleases with De Novo Farm and Maryland Corn Maze are pending and would expire in July 2026, according to an NSA Annapolis spokesperson.

As of last year, the county pays the Navy $240,000 a year in rent for the land.

Any renewable energy generation project at the former dairy farm would need to align with the Department of Defense’s carbon-free electricity goals, as well as the Navy’s Climate Action 2030 — a plan to reach net-zero emissions. That plan includes achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2030.

None of the power generated from a future renewable energy project will go directly to the Naval Academy, however.

Energy generated from the project will be sold by whatever company sets up solar panels on the property, Schwarz said. The energy will be sold to a regional energy distributor, such as BGE. A BGE substation is just south of the farm.

In turn, the Navy could receive renewable energy credits, which have monetary value, leveraging the Department of Defense’s carbon-free electricity goals, he said.

“That’s what we’re looking for, proposals for how [developers] would do that and how much they would contribute,” said Zoe Johnson, community planning liaison officer for NSA Annapolis.

Through a lease to a developer, the Navy is also required to receive value in cash or through in-kind considerations, non-cash contributions that would directly benefit the Naval Academy. These could include renewable energy credits or support for climate and energy resilience projects.

Schwarz hopes to use in-kind considerations to support projects at the academy that would bolster its resilience to climate change and sea level rise, such as repairs to sea walls. Cash proceeds from a lease could be directed to the Midshipmen Welfare Fund, which provides support, entertainment and wellness for midshipmen at the academy, Johnson said.

Johnson and Schwarz said the Naval Academy would be the first service academy in the nation to receive renewable energy credits from an offsite clean energy project.