Growing vegetables and grazing using solar energy? Agrivoltaics are on the rise, potentially adding more than 100,000 jobs

On a crisp, sunny morning, Meg Caley is showing off a large patch of kale to visitors at Jack’s Solar Garden.

As the executive director of Sprout City Farms, Kelly has more than a decade of farming experience in the Denver area of the United States, although it is mostly an urban environment that is not suitable for farming.

About an hour north of Denver, she works with researchers studying an experimental farming method called agrivoltaics.

Agrivoltaics do not require complex technologies. Unlike traditional solar farms, the solar panels here are placed very high off the ground to accommodate grazing animals and allow more sunlight to pass through the animals and onto the plants.

This approach could be beneficial for both energy production and crop growth. Less sunlight helps plants stay cooler during the day, allowing them to retain more water and therefore require less watering.

Planting plants underneath solar panels can also reduce the amount of heat reflected from the ground, making the panels cooler and making them more efficient. Moving animals and farm workers tending crops also benefit from cooler temperatures.

Without affecting crop yields, widespread adoption of this practice could help reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by 330,000 tons per year and add more than 100,000 rural jobs.

A 2019 study in the journal Scientific Reports predicted that the world's energy needs could be met with solar panels if less than 1% of farmland was converted to agrivoltaic systems.

Joshua Pearce, a solar energy expert at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, said there are multiple benefits to combining agriculture and power generation.

He said: "Solar energy and increasing land use efficiency are worthwhile investments and increase farmers' income per acre. Ensuring access to fresh food and renewable energy also benefits local communities."

But researchers are still looking for the best ways to implement agricultural photovoltaic power systems. One variable is height: At Jack's Solar Garden, for example, scientists are testing panels 6 or 8 feet above the ground. There's also the question of which types of plants are better suited to being shaded by solar panels.

Until these issues are resolved, photovoltaics will remain an experiment. “Farmers don’t know they’re risk takers,” said Allison Jackson, director of education at the Colorado Agricultural Power Learning Center, which organizes tours at Jack’s solar garden.

But it's also expensive. While photovoltaics can save farmers money on irrigation and electricity, or they can sell power to the grid as an additional source of cash, installing solar panels is a significant upfront cost.

Despite these challenges, agrivoltaic projects are being deployed around the world. Photovoltaic generation capacity has increased from about 5 megawatts in 2012 to more than 14 billion last year as state-funded projects in Japan, China, South Korea, France and the United States increased, according to Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. megawatts.

Peter Perrault, head of circular economy at renewable energy developer Enel North America, said: "The implementation and expansion of this dual-use solar power will require more research. But we already know that the fundamentals are feasible." "