Farmland Photovoltaic Energy Storage Solution

Can farmland be used for solar energy?

There is significant opportunity to produce large amounts of solar energy on farmland. Agricultural land in the U.S. has the technical potential to provide 27 terawatts of solar energy capacity. This is a quarter of the total U.S. solar energy capacity of 115 TW. Only 0.3% of farmland is expected to be used for solar energy by 2035.

Are solar farms a dual-land-use solution?

However, PV farms are space-intensive, conflicting with other land-uses such as agriculture. Agrivoltaics (AV) offers a dual-land-use solution by combining solar energy and crop cultivation. Some pioneering AV production systems have been implemented in practice.

What is agrivoltaics and how can it benefit the solar industry?

For the solar industry, agrivoltaics has the potential to facilitate siting of solar installations, improve solar PV panel performance by cooling the panels, and lower operations and maintenance costs by limiting the need for mowing.

Are solar aglectric farms feasible?

The feasibility of solar aglectric farms has been proven through shadow modelling. The proposed solar aglectric farms—used alone or in combination with regular solar parks or wind plants—could be a solution for a sustainable renewable economy that supports the ‘full Earth’ of over 10 billion people.

What is agrivoltaics?

Therefore, new systems which enable dual land use are providing a solution to combine renewable energy and food production. Agrivoltaics (AV) aims to achieve an optimized dual land use for solar energy and crops.

Could agrivoltaics be a solution?

Combining agriculture and solar on the same piece of land might be a solution, which is why DOE is funding $15 million in research on how agrivoltaics could work for farmers, the solar industry, and communities. Agrivoltaics is still a nascent business model.