Two “agri-dreamers” believe agrivoltaics promise a highly profitable harvest for many North American farmers and ranchers.
Joshua Pearce and Ethan Winter lead efforts to understand the impact and encourage large-scale solar power generation on farmland. Agrivoltaics, a relatively new term, unites cropping practices and solar panels on the same fields.
Installed solar panels can provide a perennial electrical energy harvest, feeding directly into the power grid. Lease payments for the dual land use could offset increasing price stress from extreme weather, variable harvests, and lower commodity prices.
Well-established programs exist throughout Europe, as well as in Japan and China. “Agrivoltaics has emerged as a formal pillar of the energy plan for countries with scarce farmland, including France, Germany, and Italy,” Winter explains.
It’s catch-up time in North America.
Here, old-school, first-generation solar fields are increasing but still rare. Herds of sheep graze on some projects. That’s starting to change.
Pearce and Winter predict the U.S. and …