For some small farmers, the dual use of land for agriculture and solar energy generation, known as agrivoltaics, is gaining steam as a path to future profitability.
But the industry is still in infancy and faces permitting barriers, public opposition and a lack of research on the best ways to practice farming and tap the sun's energy at the same time.
To some, agrivoltaics could be a compromise that fills a need for more land for solar development without the loss of more farmers and farmland. Through such systems, farmers create new revenue by generating solar power while maintaining agricultural production.
At this point, agrivoltaic systems have been most effective in sheep grazing and habitat management for pollinators. But some grow fruit, vegetables and other specialty crops like cranberries. The Department of Energy is offering up to $8.2 million for stakeholder teams to explore the viability of agrivoltaic systems for cattle grazing.
But a major concern is that solar development might contribute to further loss of farms and farmland, a problem frequently highlighted by Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack.
The number of U.S. farms fell 7% over five years to 1.9 million, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Farmland acreage declined from 900 million to 880 million in five years.
Solar energy generation is forecast to grow in the next several years due to policies, incentives and climate goals. More than 80% of solar development through 2040 is expected to take place on farmland, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said at a Solar Farm Summit last week in Chicago.
While there is still trepidation among some farmers about the rise of solar, producers and advocates speaking at the summit indicated there’s a way that it could benefit all parties.
“That's really why someone like me who spent my whole career trying to support farmers has gotten very excited about agrivoltaics,” said John Piotti, president of American Farmland Trust, the summit sponsor. “At its best, you can do more by doing both. You can produce more energy per acre, you can have more employment per acre. It truly is synergistic when done right.”
At the summit, producers said they hope agrivoltaics can provide a new year-round revenue stream and potentially slow the decline of small farms, which some at the summit feared are disappearing due to lack of commodity income.
Matt Riggs, a fifth-generation farmer, cited negative returns per acre for corn and soybeans and said the current, traditional agricultural business model is not sustainable for some. He said farmers need other revenue streams, and agrivoltaics could be one of them.
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On his farm, Riggs started making beer from grain and is pushing to add solar arrays.
“If there are solar panels that could at least just pay the property tax, so anything I do underneath is gravy. I’ll do that,” Riggs said.
The current business model for agriculture is not appealing to future generations, and adding solar generation to the mix could be a way to secure a family farm financially and keep younger generations interested, said John Langdon, a fourth-generation farmer in Oregon.
Langdon’s family has farmed grass seed, hazelnuts and wild rice. He has a 1,500-acre proposed solar project that he hopes will show younger farmers that agrivoltaics can help make agriculture more viable economically .
“I hear ‘save farmland.’ Well, save it for who?” he said. “I'm interested in saving some of the farmers. And so to me, that means letting us be producers of food and energy in a system that has been created by many of you that will make both operations better on the same piece of dirt.”
Revenue from solar has provided year-round security that farmers like Paul Knowlton, a fifth-generation farmer in Massachusetts, have used to improve and innovate their farming operations.
While the panelists have found value in solar investments, they also acknowledged the barriers and distrust among other farmers, particularly those who don’t own the land they farm.
In a survey of solar developers, farmers and utilities, conducted by the Solar and Storage Industries Institute (SSII), one-third of farmers consistently opposed solar under any conditions. However, a significant portion of that group did not know what agrivoltaics is and should not be considered as “completely unreachable,” said Shawn Rumery of SSII.
The remainder of surveyed producers said they would be open to solar development if they could continue farming, if it would provide supplementary income, and if they could directly influence design and planning.
“Right now I think they’re just scared, and I totally understand why,” Riggs said. “Right now farmers don’t know their bargaining position, because they don’t really have one.”
Panelists said more education and a relationship between farmers and solar developers is needed to ensure trust that projects are implemented effectively. Riggs also said tax incentives for agrivoltaic projects need to benefit farmers, not just solar developers.
Many of the policies that directly affect agrivoltaics have come at the state and local level. Massachusetts became the first state in 2018 to incentivize the systems.
Groups like AFT have pushed for federal policies to boost research in the industry. Some of the ideas made it into the House draft farm bill that advanced out of markup in May, and the framework presented by Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
The energy title of Stabenow’s proposal includes a definition for agrivoltaic and requires USDA to coordinate with DOE on guidance for best practices. It also requires reporting on agrivoltaic projects in programs administered by the Rural Utilities Service.
On the research side, her framework includes a USDA and DOE study on agrivoltaic systems to develop a plan to better support projects “that do not displace agricultural production.”
A provision expands the Grazing Land Conservation Initiative to provide technical help for owners and managers of grazing land who want to manage livestock in an agrivoltaic system.
The House draft calls for investment in research to aid decision-making for solar permits and asks USDA to propose best practices for soil health in solar installation and operation.
The bill also would direct USDA to study the viability and scalability of agrivolatic operations, but does not define the term or provide funding.
Agrivoltaic proponents and AFT have pushed for assurances that farmers who work within solar arrays remain eligible for USDA support programs. Agrivoltaic systems can sometimes be considered industrial rather than agricultural, which may risk eligibility for farm program benefits. AFT noted in a blog post that the House bill did not include such clarification.
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