Agrivoltaics: Merging Solar Energy with Agricultural Practices for Dual Benefits

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Key Takeaways

Agrivoltaics integrates solar power generation with agriculture, enabling efficient use of the same land for crop cultivation and renewable energy production. This is particularly important in areas where arable land is scarce.
Through agrivoltaic systems, solar panels provide shade for crops, protecting them from excessive heat, hail, and storms. This protection maximizes yields and minimizes water evaporation, helping to promote more sustainable water use.
With dual revenue streams, farmers would be able to sell solar energy while keeping or even improving agricultural productivity below the solar panels. This diversification of income streams increases long-term financial viability.
Agrivoltaic practices align with numerous environmental goals by reducing carbon footprints and conserving water and land resources while benefiting biodiversity with pollinator-friendly designs.
While high initial investment costs are a consideration, these can be offset by government incentives and long-term savings leading to enhanced profitability over time. Farmers need to look into a wide range of funding opportunities and conduct comprehensive financial analyses.
Bifacial solar panels and automated soil/plant/water monitoring equipment are developing full tilt. These technological advancements enhance the efficiency and commercial feasibility of agrivoltaic systems. By incentivizing farmers to adopt these innovations, we can help them do more with less while achieving results.

Agrivoltaics, or agri-solar, combines solar power generation with agricultural production. This novel agrivoltaic system provides renewable energy generation while effectively complementing agricultural crop production and livestock grazing. Agrivoltaics maximizes use of the land by pairing solar panels with agriculture.

This unique combination makes the most of land use and creates two revenue streams. Meanwhile, farmers can reduce their energy expenses and discover a new revenue stream. Additionally, crops grown underneath solar panels are often more productive due to the benefits of solar panel-induced partial shading and moderation of extreme temperatures.

This ground-breaking strategy advances the nation’s clean energy objectives while helping to protect and encourage more sustainable farming operations. In this post, we’ll explore what agrivoltaics is, how it works, and discover its shocking benefits. We’ll showcase its successful implementation around the United States and how it strengthens both the energy and agricultural industries.

What is Agrivoltaics?

Agrivoltaics, or agrophotovoltaics, are a new and exciting practice. It’s an innovative approach that integrates solar energy systems with agricultural practices on the same parcel of land. This synergistic approach creates clean, renewable energy and grows food at the same time.

It allows us to maximize our limited land resources. By putting solar panels over crops, we can use sunlight for both things. This groundbreaking technology integrates energy collection and agriculture in a manner that maximizes benefits and outputs to both sectors.

Defining Agrivoltaics

At its most basic, agrivoltaics is a more sustainable approach to farming that incorporates solar photovoltaic panels alongside traditional farming. These agrivoltaics systems are engineered specifically to produce clean, renewable energy at the same time as advancing the productivity of agriculture.

Shade-tolerant crops such as leafy greens and herbs thrive in the partial shade of solar panels. These solar panels provide shade and reduce temperature fluctuations. Because it provides some shade, this arrangement can reduce evaporation from soil surfaces and decrease irrigation demand.

Known by its other name, agrophotovoltaics, the practice above highlights the promise of renewable energy working in concert with legacy agriculture.

Core Principles of Agrivoltaics

Agrivoltaic systems are committed to maximizing both land use and resources. Through this unique balancing act between energy production and agricultural output, they achieve a harmonious relationship between the two.

Solar panels cool the ground during the day and retain warmth at night, improving conditions for crops while supporting biodiversity. As an example, studies have documented higher plant diversity and greater pollinator activity in agrivoltaic systems, illustrating their environmental value.

Evolution of Agrivoltaic Systems

From concept to widespread adoption, advancements such as rotational solar panels and cost-effective designs like the Osprey PowerRACK have driven agrivoltaics forward.

As of January 2023, more than 560 U.S. Sites are generating an impressive 10,000 megawatts of energy. Increasingly, this practice is being seen as a win-win sustainable land-use solution.

How Does Agrivoltaics Work?

Agrivoltaics combines solar energy production with agriculture, creating a system where solar panels and crops coexist on the same land. This synergy allows sunlight to be utilized for two purposes: generating electricity and supporting plant growth.

Solar panels, often elevated, provide partial shade to crops, reducing water evaporation by up to 30% and protecting plants from intense heat. Under the panels, soil is exposed to sun and shadow in rotation throughout the day, encouraging varied and rich growing environments.

Rotating panels can allow even greater fine-tuning to sunlight distribution, but at the cost of more complex systems.

Design Considerations for Agrivoltaics

Effective agrivoltaic designs depend on factors like panel layout, orientation, and local environment. Site assessments help determine the ideal configuration by analyzing sunlight patterns, soil quality, and crop requirements.

Tailored designs, such as inter-row panels or vertically integrated systems like grape trellises, ensure compatibility with specific agricultural practices. For instance, maintaining a ratio of row distance to trellis height ≥1.5 reduces shadowing in vineyards.

Solar Panel Placement Strategies

While crop productivity is important, strategic panel placement—and even the angle of the panels—can help to prioritize energy generation. Considerations are spacing panels to allow enough sunlight on crops as well as harvests, and siloing certain solar technology to maximize solar efficiency.

Fine-tuning panel height to suit the crop type and regional climate allows maximum performance. To start, taller plants or livestock grazing are matched with higher panels and lower panels accommodate ground cover crops more effectively.

Optimize Land Use

Agrivoltaics maximizes the productivity of our land by yielding both food and energy—very important on our limited, costly land. By targeting marginal lands, such as arid deserts, we can develop solar energy projects that open vast swaths of unproductive land for dual-purpose cultivation.

Benefits of Combining Solar and Agriculture

Bringing together solar energy and agricultural land through agrivoltaic systems offers a sustainable way to address our energy needs. This innovative approach enhances food production while supporting solar power production, protecting our environment. By maximizing opportunities for solar energy integration and farming to work in harmony, this strategy benefits farmers and ecosystems alike.

Maximize Land Use Efficiency

Agrivoltaics helps farmers make the most of their land by directly integrating solar panels with agricultural activities. This innovative, dual-purpose approach removes the need for competition between agricultural land and land needed for renewable energy production.

For example, solar arrays that are placed above agricultural crops can further both energy and food production, raising the productivity of the land as a whole. With agrivoltaics, farmers can maximize the use of their land without sacrificing the quantity or quality of their agricultural products.

Increase Revenue Streams for Farmers

Agrivoltaic systems open up new streams of income by providing farmers the ability to sell solar energy they are producing on their land. This diversification of income can help make farmers’ finances more resilient in times of uncertainty, such as when crop markets fluctuate or with extreme weather events.

Taking a collaborative approach greatly boosts the financial upside for farmers while engaging more deeply with solar companies. They can rent out land for solar installations and still conduct their agricultural business underneath.

Reduce Environmental Impact

By producing clean energy through agrivoltaic systems, solar energy projects help lessen greenhouse gas emissions and our reliance on fossil fuels. These solar parks preserve biodiversity by minimizing the need for disruptive land modifications, further contributing to sustainable farming practices.

Improve Crop Yields and Quality

The shade cover offered by solar panels shields delicate crops from inclement weather. Further research has demonstrated that select crops, including cherry tomatoes and chiltepin peppers, produce much more under agrivoltaic systems.

These systems help sustain the right temperature and moisture, improving crop resilience and quality.

Conserve Water Resources

Solar panels significantly lower evaporation rates, thereby enhancing water conservation efforts in arid states like Arizona and Nevada. This range of opportunities makes agrivoltaics a particularly important strategy for sustainable water management and solar energy generation.

Support Pollinator Habitats

Planting underneath solar panels in agrivoltaic systems helps create habitats for pollinators, increasing agricultural yield and enhancing solar energy generation.

Overcome Challenges and Considerations

Agrivoltaics face unique obstacles to implementation, particularly in solar energy projects. By understanding these challenges and addressing them, successful solar power production initiatives can be achieved through purposeful planning and strategic decisions.

Initial Investment Costs

The upfront cost of agrivoltaic installations are still a major hurdle for farmers. Solar panels and mounting systems, in addition to necessary integration with existing agricultural infrastructure, require significant upfront capital financial investments. Those long-term savings more than make up for the short-term costs.

Agrivoltaics provides two new, green revenue streams—energy production and increased crop yield—along with slashing the cost of energy for schools. Wheat grown underneath solar panels can match 80% of its maximal yield and produce 80% of the potential solar energy. This approach makes the best possible use of land use efficiency—an impressive 160%!

This is why it’s important for farmers to research grants, loans and other federal incentives targeted toward renewable energy projects because they can help lighten the financial load.

Panel Shading Effects on Crops

Additionally, changing the amount of light received by crops through solar installation could affect plants’ growth and development. Some crops do well in less light, others don’t. Testing prototypes on a representative of farmland would test compatibility.

For example, shade-tolerant crops like leafy greens often perform well, while sun-loving plants may require adjustments in planting density or timing.

Equipment Maintenance and Accessibility

In operation and maintenance of solar panels preventive maintenance is important. Agrivoltaic systems need to be built with a priority of streamlined panel access while maintaining productive farmland utilization.

Educating people on maintenance and repair helps reduce downtime and increase project efficiency.

Regulatory and Permitting Hurdles

As every state or municipality operates under different regulatory frameworks, this poses a possible roadblock. Knowing these policies and getting ahead of them by working with local government staff makes the permitting process easier.

In Japan, agrivoltaics has proven the economic and social benefit of revitalizing unkept or abandoned farmland.

Crop-Specific Vulnerabilities

Because every crop is different, we are still learning how each one responds to the agrivoltaic conditions in solar parks. Farmers need to be flexible in crop selection and focus on developing practices that enhance solar energy generation.

Agrivoltaics in the Northwest

Agrivoltaics presents a unique opportunity for the Northwest, a region known for its diverse climate and strong focus on sustainability. This innovative hybrid solution of solar energy generation and agriculture is helping to resolve the issues of solar power production and land use conflict. This renewable energy source provides local farmers significant financial and ecological benefits.

Unique Regional Considerations

The diverse soil types and microclimates present in the Northwest play an important role in how agrivoltaics might be implemented. Fertile soils and moderate rainfall support a long growing season for diverse agricultural production. Conversely, in dryer areas, farmers may rely on varieties that are capable of withstanding drought conditions.

Local ecosystems will help guide where we put such elevated solar panels. In agricultural applications, we generally mount them 6-8 feet over crops to maximize the light received by the photovoltaic panels as well as the crops underneath them. Farmers can adapt configurations based on factors like shading needs or water retention, which agrivoltaics naturally enhances by maintaining soil moisture.

These systems even open up possibilities for beekeeping, further diversifying revenue streams.

Suitable Crops for the Northwest Climate

In this state, shared solar and agricultural systems allow for an abundance of crops such as berries, leafy greens, and tomatoes to flourish. Researchers in Oregon have discovered that agrivoltaics helps alleviate drought stress in tomatoes and reduces tomato defects such as blossom end rot.

Growing native or drought-tolerant crops guarantees long-term sustainability without sacrificing productivity. Significant experimentation with crop combinations will be needed to find the best species pairings to produce renewable energy alongside the country’s food production.

Case Studies in the Northwest

As seen in projects from Oregon and Washington, agrivoltaics is an emerging field with great promise. These initiatives provide some key takeaways for increasing solar efficiency.

We can increase their efficiency by 3-4% and thus reduce energy costs for producers, by developing cooler panel environments. On-the-ground work, coordinated collectively among farmers, can continue to hone practices and share effective successes.

Policy and Incentive Landscape

Farmers and agrivoltaic projects benefit from these subsidies, including federal tax credits for solar systems, which enhance solar energy production. Advocacy for expanded incentives is critical to promoting agrivoltaic adoption and clean energy infrastructure.

Economic Models and Viability

Agrivoltaics combines solar energy production with agriculture on the same land to produce a dual-income stream that supports both agrarian and energy missions. Doubling up across land uses helps address problems such as the race for land. This strategy not only helps strengthen solar’s economic models and long-term viability.

Figuring out all the economic models that support agrivoltaics will be critical to underpinning financial sustainability and long-term profitability.

Calculating ROI for Agrivoltaic Projects

To measure ROI for agrivoltaic systems, farmers need to consider direct and indirect benefits. Energy savings, increased revenue from selling electricity back to the grid, and higher crop yields are some of the leading factors. Agrivoltaic systems—or co-locating agricultural production and solar PV—have been scientifically proven to produce 1% higher annual electricity production than traditional solar PV systems.

Increased soil moisture retention under new developments, increased soil moisture retention under solar panels reduces irrigation needs, cutting water clearance costs. A thorough financial analysis, including upfront costs, maintenance, and long-term revenue potential, ensures a clear understanding of the system’s viability before implementation.

Government Incentives and Subsidies

Financial support for agrivoltaics comes from many government programs, such as the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits, grants, and subsidies. Keeping a close ear to the ground on policy developments is key, because these kinds of incentives can make a huge difference in installation costs.

Forward-looking farmers can benefit from land lease agreements with companies like Enel. This enables them to generate income from solar energy without disrupting their ability to farm. Such programs help reduce barriers to entry and further advance sustainable energy practices.

Long-Term Profitability Analysis

We found that long-term planning was key to maximizing agrivoltaic profitability. Having varied sources of income — with long-term solar energy contracts and other alternative cash crops — increases their ability to weather economic storms.

Ongoing evaluations help farmers adjust strategies where needed, setting them up for continued growth and in-tune production with market demands.

Technological Innovations

Agrivoltaics is a new and rapidly growing practice, and at the frontier are innovative technologies specifically developed to improve agrivoltaic efficiency and profit potential. By bringing agricultural productivity and renewable energy together, these innovations fit a farmer’s need to get the most out of their land—and make the most money while doing it.

Read on as we highlight some of the biggest breakthroughs moving this exciting field forward.

Bifacial Solar Panels

Through the use of bifacial solar panels, agrivoltaic systems are changing the game in how efficiently energy can be harvested. Unlike conventional panels, these new solar panels are capable of harnessing sunlight from both their front and rear sides.

This unique dual-sided design greatly increases energy production, making it ideal for environments that feature light reflection from surfaces such as dirt or plant life. For example, a farm using bifacial panels might generate more energy overall without needing to increase their solar footprint at all.

Integrating this technology into agrivoltaic setups allows farmers to meet energy demands while maintaining agricultural productivity, making it a practical option for long-term efficiency.

Transparent and Semi-Transparent Panels

Transparent or semi-transparent solar panels provide an interesting opportunity to produce energy while allowing crops to flourish underneath them. These special panels let sunlight filter through, making sure that crops get the right amount of sunshine needed for photosynthesis and growth—all while producing clean electricity.

Lettuce and other shade-loving crops thrive under the semi-opaque panels. This unique strategy brings together an ideal blend of agriculture, technology, and energy objectives. Farmers will have the opportunity to test these cutting-edge concepts to minimize their land use while maximizing agricultural productivity.

Automated Monitoring Systems

Integration of automation, AI, and robotics into agrivoltaics are changing the landscape. Automated monitoring systems deliver real-time insights into crop conditions and energy performance.

These systems monitor key variables such as soil moisture, temperature, and panel efficiency to allow farmers to make operation-level decisions that benefit their operations and the environment. Just by investing in this technology, farmers have the potential to avoid disastrous crops and aid in more effective decision-making while boosting productivity.

Advanced Crop Modeling

Innovative crop modeling relies on predictive data to achieve optimal results in agrivoltaic settings. These digital solutions allow growers to choose the right crops for the right environment, improving crop diversification and maximizing planting time.

Modeling, for instance, can help determine which crops will be most successful with a transition to partial shading. This data-driven approach minimizes risk and improper use of resources.

Policy and Regulatory Frameworks

Simple policy and regulatory frameworks are key to agrivoltaics taking off. Establishing guidelines that support the dual use of land for solar energy and agriculture can help farmers and developers work together effectively.

These frameworks help to clarify, minimize risk, and promote investment, forming a strong groundwork for sustainable agrivoltaic development. By tackling agricultural productivity and renewable energy goals together, policies can protect our land and water while reaping the largest possible economic benefits.

Streamlining Permitting Processes

By streamlining permitting processes, state legislators can make a meaningful impact on the many barriers that farmers encounter when adopting agrivoltaics. Long, complicated processes create a disincentive to participate, bringing progress to a crawl.

Streamlined regulations including standardized zoning regulations or pre-approved designs for agrivoltaic systems can help make this transition smoother for farmers. For instance, local governments might provide faster approvals for any project that meets a clear set of predetermined criteria, eliminating needless cost and delay.

Work closely with farmers throughout the planning process. This strategy meets their operational needs and concerns without compromising your interests, and earns their trust and cooperation.

Incentivizing Agrivoltaic Adoption

Financial and educational incentives are crucial to reaching farmers across the country, motivating them to experiment with agrivoltaic practices. Tax credits, grants, or low-interest loans serve to reduce the burden of upfront investment costs, opening the door for these systems to be more widely adopted.

Funding is only the starting point. Support networks and training programs equip these farmers with the expertise they need to add solar panels and continue producing high-quality crops.

Public-private partnerships, like those we’re starting to see between utility companies and agricultural cooperatives, can help further accelerate the adoption by more closely aligning resources and expertise.

Addressing Land Use Conflicts

Finding a balance among these often-competing land use interests will be critical for successful agrivoltaic implementation. Open and collaborative dialogues among all parties—agriculture, development, and government—can address and balance the interests of multiple stakeholders.

Policies that encourage multi-purpose land use can go a long way toward alleviating worry. Simultaneously, statewide designation of specific areas for agrivoltaics encourages sustainable land use.

Farmers and advocates who push for these kinds of policies help make sure that agricultural productivity is a core part of energy planning.

Future Research and Development

As agrivoltaics picks up momentum, continued research into solar energy projects is essential to perfecting technologies and practices. This emerging field has the potential to address energy and agricultural needs simultaneously, but advancing solar energy generation requires focused efforts in several areas.

Improving Panel Efficiency

Maximizing the efficiency of solar panels is one of the two major components in increasing the performance of agrivoltaics. Ongoing research is developing technologies such as wavelength-selective photovoltaic (PV) panels. These pioneering panels allow select light wavelengths to pass through, promoting crop growth underneath while creating clean electricity above.

Other innovations like diffusion coatings and bifacial panels are exciting new technologies that can increase a project’s energy production. Farmers stand to save the most when they are educated and aware of these new technologies. Fortunately, these innovations offer openings to enhance energy creation and protect agricultural output simultaneously.

For example, higher-efficiency panels can reduce the land area needed for energy generation, aligning with the Solar Futures Study projection of solar providing 1 terawatt of electricity-generating capacity by 2035.

Optimizing Crop-Panel Interactions

Understanding the interactions between crops and panels will be key to optimizing outcomes. Strategies are therefore employed that take into consideration the light requirements of crops and what shading effects will occur, ideally resulting in optimal energy generation and agricultural yield.

Studies have indicated that these agrivoltaic systems can get up to 80% of their maximum wheat production. They can capture 80% of the available solar irradiation, giving them a stunning total land-use efficiency of 160%. Through minimal upfront costs, farmers can test different panel heights, spacing, and orientations.

This flexibility enables them to tailor their configurations to their unique crops and growing conditions.

Developing New Agrivoltaic Systems

There is more potential to be unlocked when systems are tailored to their unique local contexts. Tailored designs tackle local issues, like their impacts on water drainage or soil quality, allowing for more effective resource management.

Our FARMS funding initiative helps foster research studies and educational resources. It makes it easier to incorporate agrivoltaics into already built solar farms, lowering barriers to entry. Strong collaboration across the research, farmer, and industry communities is key to developing scalable, groundbreaking solutions.

Conclusion

Agrivoltaics provides a mutually beneficial and practical solution to produce solar energy as well as nurture, protect, and expand our agricultural lands. Agrivoltaics harmoniously combines two critical resources—land and sunlight—to produce a continuous flow of energy and wealth. This allows farmers to grow crops and/or raise livestock beneath solar panels, providing them with an additional revenue stream and more efficient use of their land. This approach lowers farmers’ energy costs, increases their crop yields under certain conditions, and allows states and countries to meet their renewable energy targets.

As technology advances and policies adjust, agrivoltaics stands ready to develop and spread into the more rural, less populous areas. In doing so, it holds great potential for advancing the sustainable development of our agriculture and energy sectors. Looking at this approach could unlock exciting second streams of revenue for farmers, innovative investments for financiers, and thriving communities for us all.

Moving forward on agrivoltaics now is an opportunity to create a future that is more prosperous and equitable. We hope to see it furthered along its way to enactment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is agrivoltaics?

Agrivoltaics, an innovative approach that involves elevating solar panels above farmland, allows for productive land use beneath solar energy projects. This unique configuration enables farmers to cultivate specialty crops or raise livestock while benefiting from solar power production, providing dual revenue sources.

How does agrivoltaics benefit farmers?

They can help farmers generate new streams of revenue from solar energy production, all while preserving crop yields or livestock operations. It further decreases water evaporation, keeping more moisture in the soil, while shading crops below for added protection against climate change.

What crops are suitable for agrivoltaics?

Shade-tolerant crops such as lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, and berries flourish beneath solar panels in a solar farm, enjoying slowed growth combined with increased water efficiency in this innovative agrivoltaic system.

Is agrivoltaics economically viable?

Yes, agrivoltaics can be profitable—utilizing both crop or livestock revenue paired with income generated from solar energy projects. Their financial viability heavily relies on current land use, expected solar power production, and any applicable government incentives.

What challenges does agrivoltaics face?

Among these challenges are high upfront costs, land-use conflicts, and other technical concerns, such as solar panel configuration and placement. On the ground, farmers need to account for ongoing maintenance and regulatory requirements to successfully implement agrivoltaic systems.

Are there policies supporting agrivoltaics?

Yes, in addition to the federal government, many states offer a variety of incentives for solar energy, including tax credits and grants. Federal policies favoring a transition to renewable energy sources further sweeten the deal, making agrivoltaics an increasingly appealing option for solar energy projects among landowners.

What is the future of agrivoltaics?

The future is bright with continued research in solar energy projects making technology more effective and efficient. These innovations run the gamut from developing flexible or dynamic solar panels to optimizing crop selection in agrivoltaic settings. With policy support and its promise to enhance climate resilience, agrivoltaics is poised to become a big new thing in sustainable agriculture.