agrivoltaics

The green grab for land

March 27, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Solar and wind farms are spreading rapidly around the world. Many economists believe that solar power has crossed the threshold where it is generally cheaper than other ways to make electricity and will become the dominant energy source in the next couple of decades. As a result, both solar and wind farms are gobbling up more and more land around the world. Estimates are that they will take up around 30,000 square miles by mid-century.

One concern is whether we are entering an era of trading food for energy. Land conflicts seem inevitable since solar power operates best in unshaded areas with gentle winds and moderate temperatures, which are the same conditions favored by many crops.

China is installing more solar farms than the rest of the world combined. Many of these are in the Gobi Desert, where there is no competing need for the land. But some are in eastern China, in densely populated grain-growing areas.

There are a number of strategies that reduce the impact of solar farms on land use. One approach is to put them on old industrial or brownfield sites that are otherwise unusable. Another is floatovoltaics: putting solar panels on the surface of lakes and reservoirs. And then there is agrivoltaics, where solar panels are installed above crop fields or where livestock graze between or even beneath solar arrays. China has more than 500 agrivoltaic projects that incorporate crops, livestock, aquafarming, greenhouses, and even tea plantations.

Green energy has both environmental and economic benefits to offer, but it must conserve nature and not excessively grab land needed for people, wildlife, and ecosystems.

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‘Green Grab’: Solar and Wind Boom Sparks Conflicts on Land Use

Photo, posted May 25, 2011, courtesy of Michael Mees via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The impact of climate change on agriculture

October 18, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Agriculture is a major part of the climate problem and remains one of the hardest human activities to decarbonize. Agriculture is responsible for approximately 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

On farms around the world, excess fertilizer gets broken down by microbes in the soil, releasing nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

According to a sweeping global research review recently published in the journal Science, greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are now 18 times higher than they were in the 1960s.

The research, which was co-written by professors at the University of Minnesota with more than 20 experts around the world, also reveals the likelihood of an emergent feedback loop between climate and agriculture. As the changing climate puts more pressure on the global food supply, agriculture will, out of necessity, adopt practices that may exacerbate its environmental impact. Without changes in agriculture, this feedback loop could make it impossible to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The research identifies several agricultural practices that could improve efficiency and stabilize our food supply in the decades to come, including precision farming, perennial crop integration, agrivoltaics, nitrogen fixation, and novel genome editing.

Finding ways to reduce the warming impact of agriculture while maintaining high crop yields are essential to both mitigating climate change and protecting our food supply from its impacts.

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Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture Suggests Even Greater Challenges to the Environment, Global Food Supply and Public Health

Photo, posted October 16, 2010, courtesy of Timlewisnm via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Solar grazing

September 16, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Agrivoltaics is the combination of solar power generation with agriculture. Generally, this has involved growing crops under and around solar panels harvesting both food and electricity. More recently, there has been increasing interest in grazing animals to manage lands used for solar power.

Enel North America, a large operator of solar farms and utility-scale battery storage facilities in Texas, has announced a partnership with Texas Solar Sheep Company to deploy more than 6,000 sheep to chow down on the greenery on eight large Texas solar sites. This is the largest known solar grazing agreement executed in the United States

Texas Solar Sheep’s flocks will graze on more than 10,000 acres of land being used for solar generation, an area roughly ¾ the size of Manhattan. Most of these sites are situated in areas with high rainfall and long growing seasons.

The American Solar Grazing Association, an organization with 950 members across 45 states, facilitates research, provides education, and develops best practices in support of a unique population of shepherds and solar developers. Their recent survey estimates that 100,000 acres of U.S. solar sites are currently being chewed on by sheep. Texas has the most installed utility-scale solar power in the country.

According to Enel, its existing solar grazing program has demonstrated substantial improvements in soil health by the additional of organic matter to the soil. Managing vegetation with sheep is also better for pollinators because sheep don’t cut down all plants the way mowing does.

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No more sheepless nights: Enel inks largest solar grazing contract

Photo, posted April 7, 2020, courtesy of Sean Nealon / Oregon State University via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Agrivoltaics | Earth Wise

November 15, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a study last year at Oregon State University, co-developing land for both solar photovoltaic power and agriculture could provide 20% of total electricity generation in the United States with an investment of less than 1% of the annual U.S. budget. Widespread installation of agrivoltaic systems could reduce carbon emissions by 330,000 tons annually and create more than 100,000 jobs in rural communities.

Agrivoltaics could provide the synergistic combination of more food, more energy, lower water demand, lower carbon emissions, and improved local prosperity. The problem with agrivoltaics to date is that the existing implementations have used solar arrays designed strictly for electricity generation rather than to be used in combination with agriculture. They are not that well suited to co-exist with growing crops or grazing animals.

A new project is underway at Oregon State that will help researchers to optimize agrivoltaic systems. The five-acre Solar Harvest Project is being built at the university’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, Oregon in partnership with the Oregon Clean Power Cooperative.

The solar array for the project is designed specifically for agrivoltaics research and uses panels that are more spread out and able to rotate to a near vertical position to allow farm equipment to pass through. The project will allow researchers to study the impact of solar panels on soil health, water use, and plant physiology and yields.

Electricity generated from the 326-kW solar system will be available for purchase by Oregon State and community members.

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Construction starts on Oregon State agrivoltaics farm that will merge agriculture and solar energy

Photo, posted April 5, 2020, courtesy of Sean Nealon / Oregon State University via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Solar Energy And Agriculture | Earth Wise

March 10, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a new study by Oregon State University researchers, co-developing land for both solar voltaic power and agriculture could provide 20% of total electricity generation in the United States with an investment of less than 1% of the annual U.S. budget.

The concept is known as agrivoltaics – using the same land for both growing crops and generating solar energy. The proponents of agrivoltaics say that it provides more food, more energy, lower water demand, lower carbon emissions, and more prosperous rural communities.

According to the study, wide-scale installation of agrivoltaic systems could lead to an annual reduction of 330,000 tons of carbon dioxide emission in the U.S. – the equivalent of taking 75,000 cars off the road – and the creation of more than 100,000 jobs in rural communities. All of this could be achieved with minimal effects on crop yields.

The study finds that an area about the size of Maryland would be needed for agrivoltaics to produce 20% of U.S. electricity generation. That area of 13,000 square miles constitutes about 1% of current U.S. farmland.

The cost of the solar installations would be $1.1 trillion over 35 years and they would pay for themselves from the electricity generated within 17 years. Installing the arrays would create the equivalent of 117,000 jobs lasting 20 years.

The researchers are going to install a fully functional solar farm on 5 acres of university owned land to demonstrate to the agricultural community and potential future funders how the study’s findings can be applied in real world agricultural systems.

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Combining solar energy and agriculture to mitigate climate change, assist rural communities

Photo, posted October 11, 2011, courtesy of Michael Coghlan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Agrivoltaics

September 24, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A new study by Oregon State University has found that the most productive places on Earth for solar power are farmlands. In fact, if less than 1% of agricultural land was converted to solar panels, it would be sufficient to fulfill global electricity demand.

The concept of co-developing the same area of land for both solar photovoltaic power and conventional agriculture is known as agrivoltaics.

The synergy between agriculture and solar power is not surprising. People have been growing crops around the planet for at least 8,000 years and, long ago, farmers found the best places to grow them which turn out to also the best places to harvest solar energy. The needs for solar panels are pretty similar to those of food crops. The efficiency of the panels decreases if they get too hot. Barren land is hotter than cropland, so the productivity of solar panels is less in such places.

The Oregon State Study analyzed power production data collected by Tesla, which had installed five large grid-tied, ground-mounted solar electric arrays owned by Oregon State. The researchers monitored air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, soil moisture, and incoming solar energy. With the data, they developed a model for the best conditions for solar panel productivity and they coincide with excellent conditions for agriculture. Solar panels are kind of like people with regard to the weather: they are happier when it is cool and breezy and dry.

Previously-published research shows that solar panels actually increase crop yields on pasture or agricultural fields.

These new results have implications for the current practice of constructing large solar arrays in deserts. Agricultural lands may be a much better option for both solar production and crop production.

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Installing solar panels on agricultural lands maximizes their efficiency, new study shows

Photo, posted April 20, 2011, courtesy of U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.