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Harvesting the Sun, the Agrisolar Short Film, is Available Now!

Across the country, farmers, landowners, researchers, and solar companies are working together to harvest the sun twice: once with crops, honey, pollinators, and forage for grazing animals, and again with solar panels. This co-location of solar and agriculture is known as agrisolar or agrivoltaics. In Harvesting the Sun, the leading voices of the agrivoltaic movement come together to share their stories and shine a light on a climate solution that can increase farm profitability, save valuable water, improve the soil, provide shade for farm workers, develop valuable ecosystem services, and increase the resiliency of rural communities. 

If you would like to contribute to NCAT’s development of an Agrisolar Center to continue this work, contact us at agrisolar@ncat.org.

Agrisolar Short Film Coming Soon- Watch the Trailer Now!

Coming February 27th: the Agrisolar Short Film Harvesting the Sun. Watch the trailer here!

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How Agrisolar Helped the Cows Come Home to One Northeast Farm

For more than 150 years, Knowlton Family Farms in Grafton, Massachusetts, has been a family-owned operation. It has grown and shrunk over the years, and now it is back in a period of expansion thanks to combining solar-energy production with agriculture.

This video, produced for the National Center for Appropriate Technology’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse, tells the story of how the Knowlton family has been able to reintroduce cattle to their farm for the first time since they sold the last of their dairy cows in 1995. Now cattle graze among the solar panels.

 

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North Metro TV Features AgriSolar Farm to Table Event

Thanks to NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse and its partners, people across the country are enjoying local food produced underneath solar panels. The most recent farm to table event, held in partnership with Big River Farms at Connexus Energy, took place September 26 in Ramsey, Minnesota.

“We’re doing this to help create community and show how delicious this food can be that’s grown underneath solar panels,” NCAT Energy Program Director Dr. Stacie Peterson told North Metro TV.

Co-locating food and fiber production with solar panels can increase land access for farmers and strengthen local food systems.

“I think you’re seeing this all across the country and once people hear about it, it just makes sense,” said Peterson. “They hear about the stacked benefits of agriculture and solar, and agrisolar, and they want to do it, too.”

To learn more about agrisolar, or agrivoltaics, visit NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse.

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CBS ‘Saturday Morning’ Features AgriSolar

CBS Saturday Morning featured NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse and one of the farmers who is partnering with an energy company to graze his sheep among their solar panels during a six-minute piece that aired nationwide.

Pairing farming with solar energy production offers many “stacked benefits,” according to CBS.

“This is going to be a game changer,” NCAT Energy Program Director Dr. Stacie Peterson told CBS. “This is taking off all across the country. We’re here to help you figure out what’s best for your area and connect you with the right people to help you do this if you want this on your farm or in your community.”

“We’re producing food, fiber, and energy all from the same acre of land,” said Solar Shepherd Founder Dan Finnegan. “It’s a smarter way to use this land.”

To learn more about agrisolar, or agrivoltaics, visit NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse.

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WATCH: How AgriSolar Helped the Cows Come Home to One Northeast Farm

For more than 150 years Knowlton Family Farms in Grafton, Massachusetts has been a family-owned operation. It’s grown and shrunk over the years, and now is back in a period of expansion thanks to combining solar energy production with agriculture.

The National Center for Appropriate Technology’s (NCAT) AgriSolar Clearinghouse today released its short film “The Cows Come Home,” which shows viewers how the Knowlton family has been able to reintroduce cattle to their farm. Owner Paul Knowlton says the last of their dairy cows were sold in 1995, and now they’ve been able to bring cattle back to the farm to graze among solar panels.

“We really wanted to try to do something different, and we made it happen, it’s a reality, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results,” Paul Knowlton said. “It was designed with the cows in mind, vegetables in mind, and also we can put a variety of different animals in here for grazing. They [the cows] took to it like fish to water.”

AgriSolar or agrivoltaic partnerships are growing across solar-appropriate farmland in the U.S., providing a new revenue source for farmers, clean energy for surrounding communities, and myriad benefits to crops, livestock, and pollinators.

Knowlton says agrisolar is what has allowed his farm to remain a viable family business.

“Nationwide, this could be a new standard,” Knowlton adds. “The idea of year-round revenue is really, really important. Having a farm that has the ability to survive is just so important. This is a way to keep the farmland going.”

NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse is connecting businesses, land managers, and researchers with trusted resources to support the growth of co-located solar and sustainable agriculture.

“AgriSolar partnerships are helping to keep family farms in family hands,” said NCAT Energy Director Stacie Peterson, PhD. “We can maximize finite resources for the benefit of communities, the environment, and businesses when agriculture and energy come together.”

WATCH: AgriSolar Partnerships Bloom in Minnesota

Minnesota energy companies, solar developers, farmers, and chefs are partnering in innovative ways to grow food, renewable energy, and pollinator habitat all within the same piece of land. The National Center for Appropriate Technology’s (NCAT) AgriSolar Clearinghouse today released its short film “Dive into the Prairie,” which takes viewers on a short tour of Minnesota’s agrivoltaic success stories.

AgriSolar or agrivoltaic partnerships are growing across solar-appropriate farmland in the U.S., providing a new revenue source for farmers, clean energy for surrounding communities, and myriad benefits to crops, livestock, and pollinators.

Chef Mateo Mackbee uses solar-grown foods at his St. Joseph, Minn., restaurant. Everything from salad greens grown under or around solar panels, to the honey that sweetens his salad dressing.

“Agrivoltaics is a big thing for me to see what can be grown, grazed, or raised in and around solar arrays,” said Chef Mackbee. “AgriSolar is the future, for sure.”

Mackbee sources solar-grown honey from Bare Honey, which partners with energy companies and solar developers to place his commercial beekeeping boxes on the same land as the solar panels and pollinator habitat.

“Pollination is a huge part of what commercial beekeeping is,” said Bare Honey founder Dustin Vanasse. “We have our co-located honeybees and those, combined with the native pollinators on these sites, will provide pollination to the farms that are around the site.”

NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse is connecting businesses, land managers, and researchers with trusted resources to support the growth of co-located solar and sustainable agriculture.

“The partnerships blossoming in Minnesota show a real-world example of how it can work for several industries that share common goals,” said NCAT Energy Director Stacie Peterson, PhD. “Land is finite, and AgriSolar partnerships mean we can maximize our resources for the benefit of communities, the environment, and businesses.”

AgriSolar ‘Farm to Table’ Event Offers an Agrivoltaic Feast

In February of 2023, the AgriSolar Clearinghouse held an AgriSolar “Farm to Table” event  at Biosphere 2 in Tucson, Arizona, in conjunction with the GreenBiz23 conference.

Similar to the AgriSolar Clearinghouse “Follow the Sun” field trips, the AgriSolar “Farm to Table” events bring members of the agrisolar community together to see, touch, taste, and celebrate the delicious foods grown and grazed at solar farms around the country.

The AgriSolar Clearinghouse — along with sponsor Enel North America and partners from Biosphere 2, NREL, InSPIRE, Jack’s Solar Garden, and Columbia University — networked with attendees while they enjoyed lunch and refreshments prepared by Chefs Erin, Mateo, and Janos. The menu highlighted foods grown and grazed under solar arrays, including honey, beans, lamb, salad greens, potatoes, and saffron.

This video is produced by the National Center for Appropriate Technology through the AgriSolar Clearinghouse program. AGRISOLARCLEARINGHOUSE.ORG

VIDEO: How A Shepherd and Solar Developer Are Joining Forces to Grow Sheep, Clean Energy

The National Center for Appropriate Technology’s (NCAT) AgriSolar Clearinghouse today premiered its short film “The Solar Shepherd” during the 2023 Solar Farm Summit in Chicago.

The film showcases a family-owned farm in central Massachusetts that’s raising sheep and solar energy on the same piece of land. AgriSolar or agrivoltaic partnerships are growing across solar-appropriate farmland in the U.S., providing a new revenue source for farmers, clean energy for surrounding communities, and myriad benefits to crops, livestock, and pollinators.

“It’s been a wonderful friendship between the two businesses,” says Solar Shepherd LLC founder Dan Finnegan. “We can’t access enough land to keep our farm sustainable, without this partnership with solar, we wouldn’t have a successful farm, we simply don’t have enough acres to graze.”

Finnegan partnered with SWEB Development Inc. on the 15-acre solar array which provides enough clean energy to power 1,100 homes and has so-far raised 45 lambs to maturity.

“You can have this partnership in a one-acre field, a 15-acre field up to a couple hundred acres,” says Joe Mendelsohn, project developer with SWEB Development Inc.

NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse is connecting businesses, land managers, and researchers with trusted resources to support the growth of co-located solar and sustainable agriculture.

“Tremendous potential exists in partnerships between farmers and solar developers,” says NCAT Energy Director Stacie Peterson, PhD. “As the demand for solar energy grows, it’s up to us to be good stewards of the finite land resources we have and maximize the benefit to farmers, communities, and the environment.”

Watch: Agrivoltaics at Jack’s Solar Garden

Jack’s Solar Garden’s 2022 season caught on film by documentarian Chad Weber of Longmont, Colorado. Hear from our people, see the work that has been done, decide how the future of solar development on America’s farmland.