CHICAGO — Chicago’s Loews Convention Center became home to the largest assembly of the solar and agriculture industries on the planet on July 8-10, as over 400 solar companies, farmers & ranchers, and University researchers converged on the Windy City for the Second Annual Solar Farm Summit. What brought these disparate parties together from across the country? The new science of “Agrivoltaics”.
Agrivoltaics — farming beneath the panels in a utility-scale solar array — is the place where farming and solar energy come together. Done correctly, it creates a synergy which can be beneficial to both the generation of clean energy from the solar panels above, and to the operation of compatible agricultural activities below the panels. And as research continues to indicate, it could also provide additional benefits to soil health through moisture and microbial retention and soil carbon sequestration.
In addition to bringing solar developers together with farmers and ranchers, the two-day program presented cutting-edge research from Land Grant Universities throughout the country, spotlighting technical innovations and best practices for solar farm livestock grazing, vegetable and small grains production, pollinator habitats, and soil conservation.
Senior officials from USDA’s Rural Utilities Service, USDA’s Rural Development Agency and the US Department of Energy’s Solar Technologies Office reviewed the scores of federal incentive programs available to farmers, rural utilities, rural communities, and solar developers through the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bi-partisan Infrastructure Act, and Farm Bill programs. Iowa’s Senator Chuck Grassley also dropped in (virtually) to extoll the benefits of the bi-partisan Agrivoltaics pilot program legislation, which he has introduced along with Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin.
Discussions also focused on the secondary benefits of agrivoltaics on small and medium sized farms and rural communities. Because agrivoltaics allows for continued farming under the solar panels, there are apparent benefits to farm families and rural communities. With robust agrivoltaics as part of the project, the farm family will remain in the community and continue to support local equipment vendors, schools, restaurants, and other local institutions. Added to this are the incontrovertible tax benefits payable to local schools and governments from any large-scale solar development.
Make no mistake, for small and medium family farmers, the cash flow from a solar lease of even a small portion of their farm could be a life preserver for their operation in hard times. And for farmers approaching retirement, the opportunity to enter into a solar farm lease could mean the difference between a comfortable retirement, and a forced sale of their land to real estate developers. (Fact check… it is real estate developers and data center moguls who are the greatest threats to prime farmland — not temporary farm solar leasing.)
Increasingly, farmers, solar developers and the staff experts at state and local siting agencies are coming to understand that agrivoltaics can be a game-changer for the responsible siting of utility-scale solar projects. Robust, soil- appropriate agrivoltaics should be integrated into any large-scale solar projects to be sited on prime farm ground.
It’s good for the farmer, good for the soil, good for the community … and good for the planet.
— Tony Logan is an Ohio farmer and Principal Consultant for Agrivoltaics Solutions, an Ohio LLC.
He formerly served as the Ohio State Director of USDA’s Rural Development Agency.
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