In rural America, shoulder-high corn is increasingly competing with a new cash crop: solar energy. Acres of solar panels shine brightly in fields along interstates and rural roads, signaling a shift in how America’s agricultural country generates revenue. The need for a happy marriage between these old and new industries has inspired an explosion of innovation and a new word to describe the combination: Agrivoltaics.
The Inflation Reduction Act includes billions of dollars in renewable energy funds that will accelerate the adoption of solar and other renewable energies. Some of the new solar panels will land on rooftops, but most will be concentrated in large utility-scale arrays that the US Department of Energy claims could eventually cover an area roughly equivalent in size to Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Solar panels work best in light winds, moderate temperatures and low humidity. Roofs share some of these characteristics. But nothing maximizes that combination of features quite like farmland. For solar developers eager to get the most out of their investments, that makes farmland irresistible.
For farmers, the attraction is mutual. Depending on the location, solar can be one of the most profitable uses of land. Texas farmers can get as much as $500 an acre, annually, from solar leases, and California’s Central Valley farmers sometimes see as much as $1,000 an acre. That’s easy money compared to the complicated and often uncertain business of farming.
But the potential scale of these new projects has rattled some farming communities, where opposition is growing and threatening the effort to decarbonize America’s electricity supply.
Critics focus on the disadvantages of converting farmland to solar generation. Panels are typically placed 18 to 36 inches off the ground, blocking access to the ground. Some dislike the aesthetics and fear that vast solar arrays will change the rural character of their communities. Meanwhile, false, social media-driven conspiracies about the facilities’ alleged negative health effects are growing in influence.
Right or wrong, growing opposition to solar in rural America risks climate progress, James McCall, a researcher at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, said in a call from Denver. “We have to find a solution that is a middle ground,” he said.
Brad Heins, a professor of animal science at the University of Minnesota, is working on just such a compromise. He is a leading researcher in agrivoltaics, a growing set of technologies and methods designed to exploit synergies between energy production and agriculture. “We harvest the sun twice,” Heins explains as he unlocks a gate to a large cattle ranch in west-central Minnesota, near the border of North and South Dakota.
The solar energy feeds grazing fodder and crops side by side with solar panels. “For farmers, it’s a two-income stream,” Heins said. That could mean planting crops that thrive in the shade cast by the panels. Or, in Heins’ case, it may mean cooling cows in the shade of the panels rather than using expensive fans in a barn.
Heins and his colleagues are at the forefront of this new field, but they are not alone. There are hundreds of agrovoltaic projects underway in the United States. Some work better than others, and some may not work at all. But the best will lead to a greener and more profitable rural America that embraces renewable energy as an asset.
The idea that shade cast by solar panels might boost farm productivity dates back to the early 1980s. Japan, a country long obsessed with its limited land and energy reserves, was among the first to explore the concept. Its first known agrivoltaic facility was established in 2004, and by 2019 there were 1,992 agrivoltaic farms in the country.
For example, the high-quality green tea plant that is ground into matcha is traditionally grown under shade nets for several weeks. Deploying these nets is not only a labor-intensive process, but it can damage delicate and valuable plants. Agrivoltaics offers an alternative. Farmers carefully position solar panels to provide the shade, thereby eliminating the need for a net and the expensive labor of deploying it. Farmers who invest in the system save money on production costs, while making money from renewable energy and a high-quality crop that they can market as sustainable.
None of these Japanese systems are designed to cover Midwestern cornfields or Texas cattle operations that spread over thousands of acres. Most Japanese farms are less than 3 acres and support the cultivation of high-value, hand-harvested crops that enjoy premium markets in Japan. Their agrivoltaic projects are adapted to this model.
Starting small, however, is an opportunity to prove the concept. In the United States, some of the most successful agrovoltaic pilots also focus on hand-harvested crops. In Arizona, researchers recently found that tomato production doubled under solar arrays, and was 65% more efficient in water use. They also found that jalapeños were 167% more water efficient, even if production remained the same. That’s an important, money-saving finding for agriculture in arid regions, especially as the climate warms.
The benefits of agrovoltaics have not only reached the farmers. The Arizona studies found that solar panels with a garden growing under them stayed cooler and produced more energy. That kind of synergy is causing solar developers to look more closely at working with farmers and encouraging more investments in rural solar.
The question now: Can techniques that have shown their greatest promise in small-scale demonstration projects and hand-harvested farms be scaled up enough to work for crops like corn, cattle, and the communities that thrive on them?
“Twelve years ago, when I started here, I never imagined I’d be doing renewable energy,” Heins tells me as he stands under a solar panel array at the West Central Research and Landing Center in Morris, Minnesota. He grew up on a dairy farm, and after receiving his PhD from the University of Minnesota, his research focused primarily on organic dairy production. “But the thing is, farming is very energy intensive,” he said. In 2013, the research center began looking at ways to reduce its energy footprint. So, in addition to seeking efficiency gains, it also began installing renewable energy systems, including solar arrays.
Agrivoltaics was part of the mix from the beginning. The center has some traditional facilities just a few inches off the ground. But it also cost an additional expense to raise panels several feet into the air. As we stand under a table shared with the University of Minnesota-Morris, Heins points to the cows grazing on the other side of the pasture. “Cows don’t do well in 80, 90-degree heat,” he said. Among other problems, heat stress in cows raises body temperatures and lowers milk production. One common solution is to put the cows in a barn with fans. But that requires electricity.
Heins and his colleagues tried a different approach: they raised the panels at least six feet, high enough to accommodate cows seeking shade. The cows did not hesitate to use it, and during the course of the study the cows stayed cooler and breathed more slowly. In other words: they were less stressed. “That’s a big problem with dairy cows,” explains Heins. Stressed dairy cows are less productive and, ultimately, less profitable. Heins tells me he has received calls from cattle farmers outside of Minnesota eager to know if their solar arrays can be compatible with their herds.
It’s not just about the cows in Morris. During a morning tour, Heins and Esther Jordan, co-director of the research center’s horticulture department, showed me a variety of plants and crops they are trying to grow under solar arrays in this pasture and others. There are good reasons to be hopeful about this work. A recent Yale study of Minnesota agrivoltaic projects found that incorporating pollinator-friendly plants not only improved the efficiency of the solar panels above them, but potentially spread benefits to surrounding farms that depend on pollinators. It’s the kind of result, along with the direct economic benefits through improved crops, that could help overcome opposition to solar arrays in American farmland.
Currently, the conversation is in early stages. Agrivoltaics, at least on a large scale, remains a subject of research more than a method of doing business. In addition, the effort of raising solar panels six to eight feet off the ground — rather than 18 inches — presents a considerable cost burden, especially when the price of steel is so high. More difficult still, even eight feet is not high enough for many modern agricultural machines to operate under. The large-scale farming operations that define so much of American agriculture—and that rely on large plants and harvesting equipment—will not, at this time, be candidates for these new techniques.
But these are short-term things. McCall, of the Department of Energy’s renewables lab, tells me that interest in agrivoltaics is high and growing. He said he’s hearing from landowners, state and local regulators, universities — “people who want to see these sites. There’s a lot of interest in setting up demonstration facilities in local communities.”
That’s good news for rural communities looking for ways to diversify their economies, for farmers eager to add another income stream, and for anyone determined to see America decarbonize its power grids. Agrivoltaics will not solve every economic problem in farm country, nor will it ensure that President Joe Biden’s solar goals are met. But it’s an important tool that farmers and solar developers are just beginning to understand and use.
In coming years, agrovoltaics will connect them to build more sustainable agriculture and energy systems. That’s reason for long-term optimism on the farm, and across rural America. More from Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:
US Green Energy Is Surprisingly Republican: Denning and Davies
Saving Planet Is More Important Than Saving Birds: Tyler Cowen
We Must Learn to Love Genetically Modified Crops: Amanda Little
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial staff or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Adam Minter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia, technology and the environment. He is the author, most recently, of “Second Hand: Journeys in the New Global Garage Sale.”
More stories like this one are available at bloomberg.com/opinion
Why are solar panels becoming cheaper?
Increased demand. The global supply chain has become larger and more efficient in response to increased demand for solar panels. To see also : Solar energy is rising in Pennsylvania. Demand led to more companies producing panels, which created a more competitive market and lowered prices.
Are the prices of solar panels going down? According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), residential solar panel systems have declined by an annual average of more than 60% over the past decade—from more than $50,000 for a 6-kilowatt-hour (KWh) system. in 2011 to between $16,000 and $21,000 in 2022.
Will solar panels get cheaper in 2023?
That works out to about $26,125 for an average 9,500 watt system before factoring in a federal tax credit. To see also : In Bangladesh, solar energy provides employment, but a lack of land slows growth. For tax year 2022, the credit stands at 26 percent of the cost of a solar system; it is scheduled to fall to 22 percent in 2023 and end in 2024.
What is the solar tax credit for 2023?
(The new Residential Clean Energy Credit replaces an older law, set to expire in 2024, that would have had a 26 percent credit for solar installations this year, and 22 percent in 2023.)
Will solar panels prices go down?
The installed cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage systems continued to decline between 2020 and 2021 in the United States, with utility-scale solar systems seeing a 12.3% drop in price, according to a new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). ).
Will solar get cheaper in the future?
That said, the cost of solar will continue to trend downward – just at a slower rate; Bloomberg predicted that the cost of solar will drop by about 34% by 2030, which is still a considerable drop!
What is the country that uses the most solar energy?
The top 10 solar energy countries are listed below:
- China – 205,072 MW.
- Japan – 61,840 MW.
- United States – 60,540 MW.
- Germany – 49,016 MW.
- India – 34,831 MW.
- Italy – 20,900 MW.
- United Kingdom -13,616 MW.
- Australia – 13,250 MW.
Which country has the greatest potential for solar energy? Yemen has the highest average solar energy potential in terms of global horizontal radiation (GHI), a proxy for the strength and concentration of solar energy hitting a PV panel. It is also one of the most water stressed and least developed countries in the world.
Will Earth eventually fall into sun?
Unless a rogue object passes through our Solar System and ejects the Earth, this inspiration will continue, eventually leading the Earth to fall into the stellar corpse of our Sun when the Universe is about twelve million years from its current age.
Will it ever be possible to go to the sun? In theory, we could. But the journey is long – the sun is 93 million miles (about 150 million kilometers) away – and we still don’t have the technology to safely take astronauts to the sun and back. And if we did, it would be pretty hot.
How long would it take for Earth to fall into the sun?
Bhatia explains that because an orbit is like falling around the Sun, if we stopped we would fall into the Sun. This would take about 64 days, but we would all die before then. Here are some highlights: On the 21st, the average global temperature has climbed to about 95 degrees Fahrenheit and crops are failing.
How long would it take to fall from the Earth to the sun?
It would take about two months for the Earth to hit the Sun (and yes, you’re right; it would go slowly at first and pick up speed as it continued to fall).
Is it possible for the Earth to go into the sun?
As the planets in our solar system move, the sun uses its gravity to pull the planets toward it. The sun’s gravity causes our planet to move along a curved, elliptical path. Fortunately, the planets move fast enough that they are not pulled into the sun, which would destroy the Earth.
Is the Earth moving away from the sun 2022?
In short, the sun is moving away from Earth over time. On average, Earth is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from the sun, according to NASA (opens in a new tab). However, its orbit is not perfectly circular; it is slightly elliptical, or oval-shaped.
Can Earth fall out of the solar system?
The Solar System is stable in human terms, and far beyond, because it is unlikely that any of the planets will collide with each other or be ejected from the system in the next few billion years, and that the Earth’s orbit will be relatively stable .
Is it possible for the earth to fall out of orbit?
If that happens, Earth’s orbit could change significantly, perhaps even throwing our planet into the Sun or ejecting it from the Solar System entirely. This is the most unpredictable component of our planetary orbit. As the Sun becomes a true red giant, the Earth itself may be engulfed or engulfed, but it will be…
Will Earth eventually fall into sun?
Finally, the most likely fate of the planet is absorption by the Sun in about 7.5 billion years billion years The abbreviations Gya or bya are for “billions of years ago”, ie. billions of years before the present. The terms are used in geology, paleontology, geophysics, astronomy and physical cosmology. the current orbit of the planet.
Can Earth get out of the solar system?
“In this close encounter, known as a ‘flyby’, the Earth and the object would exchange energy and momentum, and the Earth’s orbit would be disrupted. If the object were fast, massive and close enough, it could project the Earth in an escape orbit directed outside the solar system.”
Will the Earth survive the sun?
The expanding sun will engulf the Earth just before it reaches the peak of the red giant phase, and the sun would still have another 0.25 AU and 500,000 years to grow. Once inside the solar atmosphere, the Earth collides with particles of gas. Its orbit will decay, and it will spiral inward.
How long can the Earth survive with our sun?
Take a deep breath… The Earth will not die as soon as scientists believed. Two new modeling studies find that the gradually brightening sun will not evaporate our planet’s water for at least another 1 billion to 1.5 billion years—hundreds of millions of years later than a slightly older model predicted.
Will Earth eventually be destroyed by the sun?
At that point, all life on Earth will die out. Finally, the planet’s most likely fate is absorption by the Sun in about 7.5 billion years, after the star has entered the red giant phase and expanded beyond the planet’s current orbit.
Does the Earth need the sun to survive?
Nothing is more important to us on Earth than the Sun. Without the heat and light of the Sun, the Earth would be a lifeless lump of ice-covered rock. The Sun warms our seas, moves our atmosphere, generates our weather patterns, and gives energy to the growing green plants that provide the food and oxygen for life on Earth.
How much money can you make selling electricity back to the grid?
So how much money can you make selling electricity back to the grid? Because rates vary based on the market value of electricity, there is no set dollar amount you can expect to get home. However, many home producers earn about $3,000 a year from a combination of REC sales and government clean energy incentives.
How does selling power back to the grid work? The meter turns forward as you draw electricity, and it turns back when the excess is fed into the grid. If, at the end of the month, you have used more electricity than your system produced, you pay a retail price for that extra electricity.
How much money can you make selling solar panels?
Solar sales representatives earn $95,427 per year on average, or $45.88 per hour, in the United States. Solar sales representatives at the lower end of that spectrum, the bottom 10% to be exact, earn about $69,000 a year, while the top 10% earn $130,000.
How much can you make selling solar door to door?
How Much Does a Door To Door Salesperson Earn in Solar Energy in the USA? The average annual salary of a Solar Energy Door to Door Sales Person in the United States is approximately $92,433, which is 24% more than the national average.
Can you make good money selling solar panels?
Sales roles in the solar industry are often advertised with salaries in excess of $100,000 per year, and it is quite feasible to achieve this type of salary, even in a remote environment. It is very rewarding. If you’ve ever worked in sales, you know how hard it can be to sell a product you don’t believe in.
How much can you make owning a solar panel company?
A typical return is around 6% per year, but this requires a long-term investment strategy as the owner of the company. For companies that only install panels for customers who pay one time, you can see profits of $5,000 to $10,000 per job.
How much money does 1 acre of solar panels make?
How profitable are solar farms? As a general rule, 1 acre of solar panels produces approximately 351 MWh of electrical energy per year. The actual profit depends on the Country and State/local radiation (Peak sun hours), but the average is about $14,000.
How profitable is a solar farm?
Solar farms typically cost between $0.89 to $1.01 per watt to install. The average 1 MW farm can earn about $43,500 a year by selling its electricity to utilities. Landowners who lease their land for a solar farm can earn between $250-$3,000 per acre/year.
How many acres are needed for a solar farm?
We usually require plots of at least 30 to 40 acres but can sometimes pool land from neighboring landowners if you have smaller plots. Although 100-plus acre solar panel arrays generate considerably more energy, 30 to 40 acres allows us to build 5 MW solar farms.
How much electricity does 1 acre of solar panels make?
One acre is approximately 4,046 square meters, so if you have an acre’s worth of solar cells, then you will get approximately 4,046 kilowatt hours of electricity every hour, or 24,276 kilowatt hours per day.