Tag Archive for: agrivoltaics

Solar grazing helps farmers feed their flocks while the expanding solar industry provides more clean energy to the grid.

Under a Texas sun, agrivoltaics offer farmers a new way to make money

At the Azure Sky solar and storage project in Haskell County, Tex., 700,000 photovoltaic panels stretch in uniform rows across the desert landscape, shimmering under a relentless summer sun. Beneath the panels, hundreds of Dorper sheep graze on Bermuda and Johnson grasses, driven there by two border collies named Bucky and Johnny.

The sheep belong to Chad Raines, owner of Key Farms in Lamesa, Tex., and they are part of a new initiative called solar grazing. In addition to providing a low cost, eco-friendly mowing service to energy companies, Raines manages a solar site that provides an estimated 586 gigawatts annually to the booming Texas solar industry.

“We still farm and do everything we used to,” said Raines, “except underneath solar panels.”

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Source: The Washington Post

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Researchers from Purdue University have studied the impact of traditional photovoltaic systems and agrivoltaics deployed in corn croplands.

Assessing viability of agrivoltaics in corn fields

A team of researchers from Purdue University have found agrivoltaics have the potential to increase energy production and reduce carbon emissions while having a minimal impact on crop production.

In the research paper “The viability of photovoltaics on agricultural land: Can PV solve the food vs fuel debate?,” available in the Journal of Cleaner Production, the team analyzed five scenarios featuring corn croplands in the midwest region of the United States.

The first is the baseline scenario, with corn grown over the whole area. The second features a traditional solar system installed on 25% of the area, replacing the corn crop. The other three scenarios feature agrivoltaics with corn growing beneath them, with an estimated 5.5% of the land occupied by solar structures and unavailable for crop growth. A full solar panel density is used in the third system, followed by half and a quarter panel density in the fourth and fifth systems.

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Source: PV Magazine

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Solar-powered irrigation boosts farming and cuts environmental impacts, while leasing land for solar panels offers farmers stable income.

PV agrivoltaics could revitalize Brazilian crops

Agriculture is a main economic activity of Brazil and is expected to produce BRL 2.46 trillion ($439 billion) of goods in 2024, according to estimates by the Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics of the University of São Paulo (USP). The academics estimate that farming will generate BRL 1.65 trillion and livestock BRL 801 billion, including machinery and service costs.

The Climate Observatory, a Brazilian NGO, estimates that 617 million tons of the total 2.3 billion gross tons of CO2 equivalent emitted by Brazil in 2022 came from agriculture. Deforestation, the nation’s top source of emissions, at 1.12 billion tons of CO2 equivalent in 2022, primarily results from clearing land for new pasture and crop fields.

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Source: PV Magazine

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A Purdue University team optimized corn yields in solar-powered fields by managing dynamic shadows cast by solar arrays throughout the day.

Validated simulations optimize solar power generation with row-crop agriculture

A Purdue University research team has demonstrated how to optimize yield in corn fields equipped with solar power arrays that throughout the day cast dynamic shadows across growing crops.

The team of eight researchers from Purdue University and Aarhus University in Denmark published their findings July 26, 2024, in Cell Reports Sustainability.

Solar panel arrays—photovoltaics—normally cast permanent shadows on the ground throughout the day. Permanent shadow on a farm field would harm crop growth. The Purdue team tested an agrivoltaics system that towers high above the crops to permit combine harvester operations.

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Source: Tech Xplore

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Agrivoltaics help preserve & improve prime agricultural land while providing farmers with additional income.

Smart agrivoltaics policy allows us to harvest the sun while preserving American farmland

American farmland can play a critical role in the clean energy transition, evolving to thrive alongside renewable energy development like solar, wind and energy storage. With respect to solar generation, in order to meet a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2035, the Biden Administration has set a goal of having 40% of our nation’s electricity coming from solar by that same date, up from the current 4%. Brownfields, closed capped landfills, rooftops and other preferred sites will provide important sources for hosting solar arrays. However, American farmland also has a significant role to play, and it is estimated that farmers and other landowners will lease more than 2 million acres of agricultural land in the United States for community and utility-scale solar projects by 2030 (a small fraction of the 880 million of farmlands reported by the USDA in 2023).

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Source: Solar Power World

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Bifacial solar panels and other crop-friendly technologies are expanding the field of opportunities for agrivoltaic development.

Peaches, grapes, & the agrivoltaic farm of the future

The emerging field of agrivoltaics has come a long way in just a few years. From a focus on pollinator habitats and grazing lands, agrivoltaic stakeholders are expanding their ambitions to raise peaches, grapes, and other crops within arrays of ground-mounted solar panels. Whether or not that blows up the whole argument against rural solar development remains to be seen, but the alliance between farmers and solar stakeholders could swing the balance and help accelerate the renewable energy transition.

The Agrivoltaic Revolution Is Coming

The agrivoltaic movement goes hand in hand with the falling cost of solar panels. Solar technology was relatively expensive in the early 2000s. To cut maintenance costs, rural solar developers put down gravel and other no-mow solutions for groundcover under the panels. Raising crops was definitely out of the picture.

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Source: Clean Technica

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Installing solar panels over fish farms can help boost seafood harvests by 50% while generating huge amounts of pollution-free electricity.

Experts discover game-changing benefit of installing solar panels at aquaculture farms: ‘A win-win solution’

Installing solar panels over fish farms can help boost seafood harvests by 50% while generating huge amounts of pollution-free electricity, according to a new study out of China.

As the World Resources Institute detailed, this is an exciting example of how solar energy can help us create a cleaner, healthier future that benefits both people and the planet.

The study looked at an aquaculture site near the mouth of the Yellow River in China’s Shandong Province. In 2021, solar panels were installed several meters above the water to generate clean energy. The results have been astonishing.

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Source: yahoo!news

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Agrivoltaics offers a promising solution to the complex task of harmonizing energy production and agriculture.

Agrivoltaics boost food & energy production in Asia

Every autumn morning at an aquaculture site near the mouth of the Yellow River in China’s Dongying City, Shandong Province, farmers begin packaging shrimp for their customers. Their harvest is increasingly more bountiful thanks to an innovative way of farming that integrates renewable energy into agriculture.

Here, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels were installed several meters above the water, helping to generate an annual 260 gigawatts-hours of energy — enough to power 113,000 households in China. Since its completion and grid connection in 2021, the farmers have also gained many benefits.

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Source: Clean Technica

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The US DOE unveiled a $71 million investment today, with $16 million allocated from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

US Department of Energy invests $71M in solar energy manufacturing projects

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In line with President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) unveiled a $71 million investment today, with $16 million allocated from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This investment aims to bolster research, development, and demonstration projects across the U.S. solar energy supply chain, addressing critical gaps in domestic manufacturing capacity.

Selected projects will focus on enhancing various aspects of the solar supply chain, including equipment, silicon ingots and wafers, and both silicon and thin-film solar cell manufacturing. Additionally, efforts will be made to explore new markets for solar technologies, such as dual-use photovoltaic applications, which encompass building-integrated PV and agrivoltaics.

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Source: Solar Quarter

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The Israeli authorities have proposed a plan to deploy 250 MW of floating solar & agrivoltaics through 4 PV plants in the Negev Desert.

Israel to deploy 250 MW of floating solar, agrivoltaics

The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure said in a recent statement that the authorities have given initial approval for four solar energy plants in the southern part of the country. The program, which will supply at least 250 MW of energy, will now be submitted for comments from various regional committees.

The projects will be constructed in the Arava region of the Negev Desert, between the Ramon Airport and the Timna copper mine, on a total area spanning 4.09 km2. The first plant will include floating PV panels installed over purified waste reservoirs, as well as a ground-mounted PV and storage solutions.

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Source: PV Magazine

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