The destructive nature of climate change is readily apparent in each week’s news, and it is clear that we must transition to renewable energy at an accelerating pace. At the same time, our agricultural system is facing many challenges, especially financial ones. Is it possible to address both these issues with a combined solution that works for all? With agrivoltaics, there is an opportunity to increase the financial health of our farmers, growers, and ranchers, while also transitioning to a renewable energy future.
What are Agrivoltaics?
Simply put, agrivoltaics are the integration of solar energy production into land used for agriculture. In practice, this typically looks like ground-mounted solar panel arrays with pastured livestock grazing alongside those panels. In many cases, vegetable and fruit crops can be grown underneath, between, and around solar arrays. Some agrivoltaic setups may also incorporate pollinator habitats and native ecologies between the arrays; this variation is sometimes called ecovoltaics.
How do farmers and landowners benefit?
According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, farm incomes have declined in the past years, and once the numbers come in, further declines are expected for 2024, as well. Before the pandemic (between 2018 and 2020,) more than half the farms in the country experienced financial risk.
The issue of financial viability in our agricultural system is multifaceted, but agrivoltaics offers a way for farms to add a source of diversified low-maintenance income for farmers and landowners. Once financed and installed, solar panels require little maintenance and catch sunlight, which gets converted into energy and turned into a steady income stream.
For certain crops, the full or partial shade of solar panels can also benefit production and profitability. For example, a 2019 University of Arizona study found that “Plants in high-light environments tend to have smaller leaves – an adaptation for not capturing too much sunlight and overwhelming the photosynthesis system. Plants in low-light environments grow larger leaves to spread out the light-capturing chlorophyll that let plants change light to energy. The researchers are seeing that in their trials: basil plants produce larger leaves, kale leaves are longer and wider, and chard leaves are larger.”
With proper site development and decommissioning planning, agrivoltaics leave open the potential for a site to return to purely agricultural uses in the future. By alleviating financial pressures, landowners are less likely to have to convert agricultural land to be used for something else. They are also less likely to be forced to sell the land off entirely.
How does the environment benefit?
Agrivoltaic systems provide an array of benefits to farmers and landowners, rural communities, and the environment. They can provide habitat for pollinators, reduce the need for herbicides and labor-intensive vegetation management on site, and contribute to stormwater absorption capabilities of the soil by reducing the amount of land converted to impervious surfaces.
Sheep, goats, cows, and other livestock can be grazed among solar panels to maximize land-use outcomes on a single site. Integrating livestock and solar systems provides forage for the animals, who in turn maintain vegetation and minimize site upkeep. In addition to producing clean energy, solar panels cast shade for the animals to shelter under on hot and sunny days.
What to consider when setting up an agrivoltaic system
Setting up a system that optimally integrates agriculture and solar production requires time and planning up-front. When done well, this will improve the long-term benefits for health and production, as well as the pocketbook.
The farmer or land manager must work with the solar developer to find a solution that works best for both parties. Livestock farmers must ensure their animals’ food, water, and shelter needs are incorporated into the site plan, and the panels are protected. For example, sheep tend towards docility, but goats require more protective measures around the panels and any associated infrastructure. Cattle require more space between rows of panels and for the panels to be mounted much higher off the ground. Crop farmers require the appropriate panel height and spacing for the intended crop.
Agrivoltaics in the real world
At a site in Haskell County, Texas, one company estimates that it saved $115,000 in mowing costs in the first seven months just by having sheep graze along the arrays, keeping the panels optimally productive. At one site in Southern Illinois, semi-transparent solar panels and moving tracker panels allow enough light for plants in a vineyard to thrive while also producing solar energy. In Longmont, Colorado, an agrivoltaics farm that grows 15 crops provides enough solar energy to power about 300 homes. These are just a few examples. At the time of writing, there are almost 600 agrivoltaic sites in operation around the United States, according to the InSPIRE Research Project, which maintains a database, an interactive map, and informational resources on agrivoltaics. Although there has been a directed effort by fossil fuel companies to keep rural and agricultural communities pitted against renewable energy, there are clear benefits of agrivoltaics to farmers, their communities, solar developers, and the general public—who will enjoy cleaner air, soil, and water. The benefits of agrivoltaics are already being embraced by agricultural communities, with many more projects to come.
Shareable produced this video with the Rural Power Coalition and The Story of Stuff Project. Learn more about Rural Electric Cooperatives by reading additional articles in this series.
