Tag Archive for: AgriSolar

AgriSolar News Roundup: ENEL Develops Agrisolar System, Agrisolar Research in Iowa, New Chinese Agrisolar Design 

ENEL and ENEA Develop Microalgae Agrisolar System  

“ENEA and Enel have developed an ‘algovoltaic’ system to cultivate high-value microalgae, ranging from €100 ($106.19)/kg to €600/kg for pharmaceutical uses or cosmetic purposes. This is possible due to the integration of a fully automated cultivation system with a 7-kW solar array. 

The system allows the cultivation of microalgae with a high commercial value, from €100/kg to €600/kg for pharmaceutical or cosmetic use, through a fully automated cultivation system integrated with the solar array.” – PV Magazine 

Iowa State University Develops Agrisolar Project to Study Land Use 
 
“Iowa State University (ISU) is embarking on a research project to explore the combination of crops and solar power. The Alliant Solar Farm at Iowa State University is a groundbreaking agrivoltaics research project merging solar power generation and agriculture to study how best to optimize land use while providing local community benefits. The array was inaugurated on Thursday, October 19th with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.” – prnewswire 

New Chinese Agrisolar Design Accommodates Farming Equipment 

“Researchers in China have built a 10 kW spectral-splitting concentrator agrivoltaic system that accommodates small farming equipment below it. The installation relies on 128 concentrator modules integrating each an ultra-white and toughened concentrating curved glass (CCG), a multilayer polymer film (MPF) and 23%-efficient interdigitated-back contact (IBC) crystalline silicon solar cells provided by Sunpower.” – PV Magazine 

Justice Driven Agrivoltaics: Facilitaing Agrivoltaics Embedded in Energy Justice

Agrivoltaics comprises solar energy generation and agricultural activities co-located to create multi-purpose agricultural solar energy systems. In 2021, the global agrivoltaics sector was valued at USD $3.6 billion and is projected to grow to USD $9.3 billion by 2031. Agrivoltaics projects have successfully attracted increasing investment and research demonstrating the technical, economic, and scientific rationale to advance agrivoltaics as a crucial technology to achieve net zero emissions goals. The legal framework enabling agrivoltaics development is at varying stages of maturity across different jurisdictions. This study provides the first socio-legal study of agrivoltaics development applying an energy justice framework.

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Case Study: University of Delaware Agrisolar Research 

As we strive for climate change solutions, competition over land for food production or clean energy production is an emerging challenge to address this challenge, demonstrations of systems that produce energy and food on the same land are needed to usher in solution-scale adoption of these practices. A new research project at the University of Delaware (UD) will study the results of growing food crops underneath uniquely designed PV solar arrays. SolAgra Corporation will oversee the installation of two solar arrays at the UD Newark and Georgetown campuses. Once built, these sites will have the potential to demonstrate just how symbiotic solar energy and agricultural production can be. 

Professors Steven Hegedus, UD Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Gordon Johnson of the Plant and Soil Sciences Department, and Emmalea Ernest, Agriculture Program Leader, will work with their students to investigate the potential benefits to food crops grown beneath the PV arrays. All the preliminary engineering studies for the project are completed and approved, and construction is on track to be completed by the start of the growing season in April 2024. UD will fund the installation of the solar arrays and the initial crop plantings underneath. Further funding from the US Department of Agriculture and the US Department of Energy is being pursued to sustain a multiyear study of the sites. 

Barry Sgarrella, founder and CEO of SolAgra, said he developed the raised solar platform that will be used in the UD project to “help farm families be more profitable and to slow the trend of farmland being consumed by commercial development.” The SolAgra Farming Array™ will consist of elevated array segments with 15.5 feet of clearance to accommodate the tallest agricultural equipment. The racking will be assembled and the solar panels installed at ground level and then hinged into an upright position. 

 The panels will track the sun to increase energy production by as much as 15% and, when needed, they can be rotated so the panel edge is perpendicular to the sun to allow the maximum amount of sunlight to hit the crops below, a function Sgarrella calls CounterTracking™. This, coupled with the unique ability to shift the entire array east or west, called DynamicShifting™, will deliver varying degrees of sunlight or shade to crops planted below as needed. The rows of solar modules will be installed on 11.25-foot centers, a relatively dense panel row spacing for agrisolar cropping applications.  

Dynamic Shifting allows the entire array to move side to side for the least amount of shading possible.

Each array segment will be 35 by 45 feet and is designed to hold enough solar panels to produce 17 kW of electricity. The array segments will be modular and can be scaled up to much larger size arrays. Each research site at the UD project will contain two array segments totaling 68 kW of installed solar panels. The two systems will be identical except that the array installed on the Newark campus will house bifacial solar panels to study how much electric production can be gained from light reflecting off the crops and ground back to the underside of the panels. Sgarrella stated that the cost to install a segment is comparable to other raised-platform solar arrays of the same size, and costs would decrease for larger installations as economy of scale is achieved.  

According to Professor Hegedus, part of the research will involve looking at crop production at different shading levels. Photo saturation is the point at which plants cannot efficiently utilize more sunlight in the photosynthesis process and once the crops are at that point, it makes sense to utilize the light for energy production. The crops that will be included in this study are strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce and were chosen because of their high market value. The flexibility of the SolAgra Farming Array™ design will allow the researchers, through controls on their smart phone or tablet, to provide full sun, full shade, or anything in between based on individual crop needs. The results can then be used to help develop shading schedule algorithms that can control the system for different crops. 

Sensors will be used to measure direct and diffuse illumination under the panels, soil and air temperatures, humidity, and crop temperatures to start quantifying crop benefits. It’s expected that the soil in the shade of the panels will retain moisture and that the crops will require less irrigation, which has been shown as a benefit of agrivoltaic cropping systems in other research.  

The researchers will also orient the panels horizontally to test the system’s ability to protect crops from severe weather like rain or hale. Even in this horizontal “umbrella” position, the panels will be able to produce 80% of their rated power. The benefits of protecting crops from damaging hail and heavy rain are evident, but many crops could benefit from the protection and shade control this system could offer. For example, this system could protect against sunscald, which can affect most crops in the right conditions and render them unmarketable. And, if grape growers could control sun levels, they could affect the acidity and sugar levels of the grape, which is very important in wine production. Many crops could benefit if growers could protect them with a solar panel covering, especially as weather conditions become more extreme. 

An umbrella effect is created when the solar panels are placed in a horizontal position and shifted over the top of each crop row.

Professor Hegedus believes that one of the biggest indirect benefits of proving this type of agrisolar system is that opposition to large solar installations on farmland might dissipate once neighbors realize that farming is not being replaced by solar panels but rather augmenting with an additional layer of income. He said, “farming is just carbon-based solar energy so now we’re combining two different ways of harvesting that energy.”  

The project’s researchers will be challenged by the quantity of data gathered from multiple sensors over a nine-month growing season at two locations. Advanced data analytic techniques will be necessary to organize and effectively interpret all the information. Future work will utilize the results from the study to form shading schedules that are tuned to each geographic and climate region to accommodate sun angle changes and local weather conditions so that the technology can be effectively utilized by farmers. 

In the face of climate change, well-designed agrisolar systems may give farmers a better chance to stay in business. Having the ability to protect crops and to control the shade levels could optimize production while at the same time producing revenue from solar power production, keeping farmland in production and profitable. Applications of this technology will be studied at UD in the coming years over the course of this project.  

Photos courtesy of Solagra.

Case Study: Hawai’i Agriculture Research Center

Crops growing under solar panels at the Hawai’i Agriculture Research Center. 

By Anna Adair, NCAT Energy Program Assistant  

In Mililani, Hawai’i, a one-acre agrivoltaic research and development site run by the Hawai’i Agriculture Research Center (HARC) is working to grow fruits and vegetables for their community, while also discovering which crops grow best locally in an agrivoltaic setting. This agrisolar project is just one of many ways HARC has been working to foster and improve agribusiness in Hawai’i for over 125 years. The overarching goal of the project is to determine how to develop novel agricultural production systems for replication at commercial scale, while simultaneously increasing the productivity and profitability of agrivoltaic sites in Hawai’i.  

Nestled within a larger 230-acre solar system consisting of bifacial auto-tracking panels, the site is a collaboration between HARC, Longroad Energy, AES Corporation, and Clearway Energy Group, which owns the array. HARC researchers believe that agrivoltaic projects require research and development in the local environment to determine optimal infrastructure design, crop selection, and agronomic practices. With this in mind, agricultural construction and environmental monitoring began on-site in 2021. 

By June 2022, preparation for the first planting of crops underneath the panels began. Researchers treated the area for weeds, disked compost into the soil, and installed four lines of dripline irrigation in each raised bed. A total of eight 180-foot beds were constructed, containing 14 different crops for initial trialing: radish, daikon, melons, kabocha squash, broccoli, cauliflower, bush beans, eggplant, poha berries, bunching onion, lavender, strawberries, sweet potato, and dryland taro. While most of the plants were successfully cultivated, researchers considered the 2022 growing season to be a screening process that allowed them to choose which crops they will plant on a larger scale in the coming years.  

In addition to the in-ground plantings, hydroponic lettuce trials were also conducted in four commercial-scale troughs between the rows of solar panels. Five lettuce varieties were chosen based on what is most popular in commercial markets in Hawai’i . By December 2022, eight cycles had been harvested and yield data collected for detailed analysis as part of an ongoing graduate school thesis project at the University of Hawai’i .  

Agrivoltaic projects like this have the potential to help meet both energy and food production needs for the state, while simultaneously optimizing land resources. HARC has successfully demonstrated that agricultural activities can be conducted on solar sites with minimal impact to existing operations and will hopefully expand their research beyond a single acre plot in the coming years.  

Photo courtesy of Hawai’i Agriculture Research Center. 

Potential of Agrivoltaics Systems Into Olive Groves in the Mediterranean Region

This paper focuses on integrating agrivoltaics systems within super-intensive olive groves in the Mediterranean region. A dual model is used to calculate the suitable transparency of PV modules, representing the area not occupied by PV cells.

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Grants Available for Projects Showcasing Agrivoltaics in Colorado 

PRESS RELEASE 
Colorado Department of Agriculture  
 
October 3, 2023 

Solar Sampler attendees at Jack’s Solar Garden. 

To help demonstrate one of the many ways agriculture can contribute to addressing the effects of climate change, Colorado is investing $500,000 in projects that help advance the use of agrivoltaics in the state.  

Agrivoltaics is the practice of co-locating solar energy installations and agriculture, with crops or grazing land beneath or between rows of photovoltaic panels. Now, farmers, ranchers, and other landowners with innovative ideas on how to use agrivoltaics in Colorado will have a chance to apply for funding for their projects.  

“Adding solar energy development to working farms and ranches is a unique opportunity to create multiple benefits on a single piece of land,” said Les Owen, Director of CDA’s Conservation Services Division. “Funding further development and research of agrivoltaics will support both Colorado’s producers and Colorado’s renewable energy goals.” 

Tractor in front of solar panels at Jack’s Solar Garden. 

Through the Agrivoltaics Research and Demonstration Grant Program, the Colorado Department of Agriculture will fund projects that study the benefits and tradeoffs of agrivoltaics in the state. 

Grant funding proposals can cover a variety of projects, including:  

  • construction of agrivolatic systems 
  • expansion of existing demonstration projects 
  • research projects around the benefits and costs of agrivoltaics 
  • outreach and education projects that focus on understanding the barriers and opportunities of co-locating solar development on agricultural lands.  

Grant applications are accepted until 5 pm on Friday, October 27, 2023. Interested applicants can find the grant information, guidelines and the application at ag.colorado.gov/ADCRO. 

CDA will host a webinar on the application process on Monday, October 9, 2023, at 1 pm. Interested participants can register here.   

Funding for this program comes from Senate Bill 23-092. In August 2023, CDA convened a Steering Committee of industry and agricultural experts to advise on the purpose and design of this grant program. These Grant Guidelines describe the purpose and objectives of the grant program, as well as the responsibilities of the grantees.  

This grant is administered by the Agricultural Drought and Climate Resilience Office (ADCRO), which helps advance CDA’s goal of Expanding Water-Resilient Agriculture. Through a comprehensive approach that includes technical assistance, grant funding, marketing assistance, advocacy, and partnerships, CDA seeks to maintain robust agricultural production while ensuring the sustainable use of water resources. For more information, please visit ag.colorado.gov/ADCRO. 

Recognizing that climate change causes pressing dangers that can lead to public health and safety risks, Colorado is committed to 100% net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. The state is taking action across all sectors of the economy, including agriculture, in ways that will not only protect public health and reduce air pollution, but also create significant cost savings on energy, transportation, and goods. 

Photos courtesy of the AgriSolar Clearinghouse. 

Responses Requested for First-Ever National Solar Grazing Census 

Sheep grazing at Brookfield agrisolar site. Photo: AgriSolar Clearinghouse 

By Alyssa Andrew and Greg Plotkin 

As solar development around the nation continues to accelerate, opportunities for farmers to graze livestock on solar sites also continue to grow. This is often considered a win-win scenario as it allows for land to continue in active agriculture while decreasing the need for mowing at solar sites, keeping costs and emissions low.  

In order to capture the most accurate and comprehensive picture of solar grazing in America to date, the American Solar Grazing Association (ASGA) is conducting the first U.S. solar grazing census supported by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory between September 15 and December 31, 2023. The overall goal of this study is to assess standardized metrics that can be used to evaluate solar sheep grazing and to further identify best practices for these systems. Furthermore, this census will provide an updated picture of the scale and reach of solar grazing in the U.S. 

ASGA is hoping to hear from as many solar graziers, as well as businesses or organizations that represent them, as possible and is grateful for those that can spend a few minutes to complete the survey. We also greatly appreciate you inviting other solar graziers to participate. All identities will be kept confidential. 

We are extremely thankful for you taking the time to help accomplish our research goals and recognize the value of your time. Every survey respondent will receive $10 off the cost of ASGA membership. In addition, all survey respondents will be entered into a drawing to receive a $100 Amazon gift card and special gifts from ASGA as a token of our appreciation. 

Thank you again for your participation. We look forward to sharing our results with the solar grazing community in 2024. If you have any questions, please reach out to Alyssa Andrew, ASGA Project Coordinator, at alyssa@solargrazing.org 

Take the survey here.  

Case Study: Colorado State University Rooftop Agrivoltaics 

A variety of chile pepper plants grow under solar panels on the roof of Colorado State University Spur campus.

Written for the AgriSolar Clearinghouse by Allison Jackson, Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center

Sitting atop the brand-new Hydro Building at Colorado State University’s Spur campus is one of the world’s first agrivoltaic rooftops. The 46-kW array is a southeast-facing fixed array. Half of the array has monofacial monocrystalline panels, while the other half has bifacial panels. The roof’s infrastructure was completed in April of 2023 followed by crop planting later that month. Dr. Jennifer Bousselot is an assistant professor of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Colorado State University and the lead researcher for the rooftop agrivoltaics site. There are a variety of experimental plots planted under each panel type, along with a control plot in the open sun, which includes performance experiments on chile peppers, medicinal herbs, leafy greens, and sown meadow plots.  

Dr. Jennifer Bouselot showcasing the sown meadow garden on the CSU:Spur Terra building.

Being situated on a rooftop comes with even more challenges than a typical agrivoltaic site. The wind loads on a roof make it challenging to install a tracking system, and the solar array requires membrane penetrations at every post or a ballast system under the soil substrate to ensure that the panels are secure. Irrigation is also trickier as green roofs have a well-drained substrate. This makes drip irrigation ineffective as water moves too quickly through the substrate profile for roots to absorb the water. The costs to locate agrivoltaics systems on rooftops is substantially increased due to higher engineering costs and the difficulties of moving and installing all the materials high in the air. 

Medicinal herb and chile pepper experimental plots under the monofacial solar panels.  

It is obviously early days for this agrivoltaics site, but some differences were already evident. Based on measurements, available light was higher under the monofacial panels than under the bifacial panels. In the chile pepper experiment, the agrivoltaic plants had reduction in chlorophyll concentration (due to less light), but also a reduction in stomatal conductance (a proxy for water use). The chile pepper plant height was also affected; the plants were up to 5 cm shorter in the open sun as compared to under the panels. The same also held true for the leafy green experiment, —the leafy greens (like kale, chard, arugula, spinach, and lettuce) under the solar panels were larger as compared to the full sun. The plants in the shade reached higher and created larger leaves to collect the necessary amount of sunlight.  

Chamomile plants in agrivoltaics system (left) versus full sun application (right).

The flowering of the medicinal herb plants seemed to be delayed for the agrivoltaic plants as opposed to the full sun plants, as seen in the photo above. On the positive side, the pigment content (a measure of potency) of the herbs was slightly higher in the agrivoltaic plants. It is only partially through the first growing season, with still more data collection to be completed, but it is interesting to note some of the early results.  

Incorporating agrivoltaics on rooftops presents an innovative synergy of renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. These sites can make urban spaces not just consumers of resources, but also active contributors to both energy and agricultural production. By harnessing the power of the sun through solar panels while simultaneously cultivating edible and useful plants, this innovative approach can maximize land utilization, reduce urban heat island effects, and foster local food production.  

Photos courtesy of Allison Jackson, Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center.

AgriSolar News Roundup: Minnesota Agrisolar Project, Follow the Sun Tour in Oregon, Agrisolar Funding in Massachusetts, Protecting Future Farmland Act in Wisconsin 

USDA Joins Great Plains Institute and Big River Farms in Minnesota Agrisolar Project 

“Officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) joined Great Plains Institute (GPI) and Big River Farms announced GPI and Big River Farms’ ‘Solar Farmland Access for Emerging Farmers’ demonstration projects alongside project partners Connexus Energy and US Solar. As the country and Minnesota both take steps to convert our energy supply to be derived from carbon-free sources, this pilot project is setting out to solve for how solar energy development can be increased while also preserving agricultural land for the people who grow the state and nation’s food.  

Funded by the Mortenson Family Foundation and with additional support from the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and Argonne National Lab, these agrivoltaics projects aim to demonstrate safe and scalable operational practices for electric cooperatives and solar site owners to provide farmland access for emerging farmers inside the fence of solar facilities.” – Globenewswire.com 

AgriSolar Clearinghouse’s Follow the Sun Tour Visits Oregon 

The AgriSolar Clearinghouse’s Follow the Sun Tour visited the North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, Oregon, on September 18, 2023. The research center hosts an agrivoltaic project, where the University of Oregon studies combining crops and solar energy on the same parcel of land. Event attendees participated in a tour of the agrivoltaic site, guided by lead researcher Dr. Chad Higgins. After the tour, everyone enjoyed a lunch and round-table discussion in the conference room of the facility.  

The research conducted at the facility includes showing that solar arrays could be used as resources for plant productivity and that solar panels on agricultural lands maximizes their efficiency. Attendees discussed details related to these studies during the tour, which also included financial questions and scalability. 

Blue Wave in MA Secures $91 Million for Agrisolar Development 

“Northeast U.S. solar developer and operator BlueWave received $91 million in financing, which the company says will allow it to achieve long-term ownership and management of its portfolio of projects. 

The financing will go toward the construction of five projects featuring dual-use solar development attributes, called agrivoltaics, in Massachusetts. These projects are “strategically implemented to benefit all parties impacted by the projects,” including landowners, farmers and the surrounding community, according to BlueWave. The financing includes a $64 million debt raise with KeyBank, and $27 million tax equity raise with U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance.”– PV Magazine  

Wisconsin Bill Introduces the Protecting Future Farmland Act 

“U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced the Protecting Future Farmland Act, new legislation to support farmers’ land stewardship efforts as many choose to deploy solar energy on their land. The legislation will ensure that federal investment in rural energy projects prioritizes both land stewardship and responsible deployment of renewable energy to protect America’s farmlands for future cultivation.” Senate.gov 

Dual-Use Solar in the Pacific Northwest Summer 2023

This report updates readers on new research in dual-use solar and explores important considerations for the implementation of dual-use solar in the Pacific Northwest region. In the last few years, new findings suggest there are many environmental and economic benefits of creating multi functional systems that combine and prioritize multiple land uses. New research of dual-use solar facilities shows increased yields in some crops and decreased water needs; benefits to grazing animals such as decreased heat stress; improved ecosystem services such as better water quality, erosion control, carbon storage, and pollination services; and further opportunities for dual-use implementation.

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