Agriculture Bureau Solar Photovoltaic Panels

Learn more about soft costs research, other solar energy research in SETO, and current and former funding programs. Agrivoltaics, or the practice of solar agriculture co-location, is defined as agricultural production underneath or adjacent to solar panels, such as crops, livestock, and pollinators.

As the energy transition accelerates and climate challenges intensify, agrivoltaics offers a promising solution for optimising land use by combining agriculture with solar power generation.

Credit: Bruno et al., doi 10.1117/1.JPE.15.032703. Agrivoltaic systems, which combine solar power generation with agricultural practices, offer a promising solution to the growing demand for both renewable energy and food production.

Combining solar energy and farming can be enhanced by smart PV-trackers that adjust solar panel positioning to ensure an optimal balance between light available for photosynthesis and light available for electricity production Agrivoltaics integrates solar power generation with agriculture.

As of March 2023, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory had identified 314 agrivoltaic projects in the United States representing over 2.8GW of solar capacity, of which most were focused on grazing and pollinator habitat, with relatively integrating crop production.

For ecosystems in water-scarce regions, these systems have been shown to increase flower production and delay blooming, which supports late-season pollinators. Research also shows that solar panels can perform better in agrivoltaic systems, thanks to the microclimate created underneath them.