Agrivoltaics – the practice of using the same piece of land simultaneously for agriculture and solar power generation – is getting a lot of positive attention and new government funding.
For example, the U.S. The Department of Energy recently awarded $8 million to six selected projects across the U.S. to study different aspects of agrivoltaics to understand better how the practice can become more widespread. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also is offering funding for pilot projects.
Here in California the state legislature is considering Senate Bill 688 to support agrivoltaics research and inter-agency coordination.
The state government also is funding a major agrivoltaics project called Project Nexus, which is being led by UC Merced rsearchers Brandi McKuin and Professor Roger Bales. Partners in the project include the California Department of Water Resources, the San Joaquin Valley’s Turlock Irrigation District and the private firm Solar AquaGrid.
UC Merced’s Mckuin and Bales say the project will erect solar panels over irrigation canals in the Turlock Irrigation District.
According to the researchers, in 2021 their team at UC Merced found that covering California’s extensive network of irrigation canals with solar panels could make significant contributions to both clean energy and water conservation, serving two of the state’s most pressing needs at once.
In addition to the added solar power, the researchers say they found that shading all 4,000 miles of the state’s canals and aqueducts could save as much as 63 billion gallons of water annually by reducing evaporation – enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or provide water to the homes of more than 2 million people.
Water and energy are two of the top issues and needs in California. More of both – additional resources – are needed, as are new ways to conserve both.
For the purposes of this column, I’ll break agrivoltaics down into two different segments, which I’ll call farmland-based agrivoltiacs and farmland related agrivoltiacs. In this case, the example of the latter is Project Nexus, which is the use of solar panels over irrigation canals.
Advocates of farmland agrivoltaics say the use of the same land for both agriculture and solar photovoltaic energy generation makes perfect sense in California where by 2030 the state plans to have 60 percent of its energy coming from renewable sources, and by 2045, plans to achieve
100 percent renewable and zero carbon energy. An all of the above renewables strategy is needed to achieve these ambitious goals, they argue.
Additionally, they say farmland agrivoltaics takes a complementary approach, offering the potential to generate clean energy on farmland while simultaneously reducing water usage, minimizing the impact on natural lands, and increasing crop yields. Agrivoltaics could help California achieve its clean energy goals while supporting its agricultural industry. Farmers also can make revenue from placing solar panels on their farmland.
Skeptics though say farmland agrivoltaics is more limited in California.
For example, Farmland agrivoltaics can mean commercial farming between rows of solar panels, livestock grazing below solar panels, or planting cover crops below solar panels. But you can’t plant permanent crops – like almonds, pistachios, wine grapes, and citrus – between solar rows. Specialty crops, like tomatoes, are row crops, but they require the use of large harvesters. Therefore, it would be cost ineffective to commercially farm such crops between solar panels, say the skeptics.
Additionally, some skeptics argue that grazing is a good way to address weed abatement, but animals can harm the solar array by bumping into it or chewing wires – and even causing fires.
However, say the advocates, the global energy company AES has over 5,000 acres of dual-use solar and grazing in California, and a number of companies around the world are planting row crops under shade structures. Additionally, in areas that are becoming less suitable for agriculture because of climate change, dual-use solar that provides shade (which can also reduce crops’ water needs) might actually give these lands a longer agricultural life.
But Majdi Abou Najm, an associate professor at UC Davis’ department of Land, Air and Water Resources, is high on farmland agrivoltaics and says it’s a climate-smart method for maximizing the potential of limited resources.
“I see it as a key player in maintaining food security for the 10 billion people inhabiting this planet by 2050,” he recently wrote. “I see it as a key player in dealing with heat extremes, drought, salinity, and other challenges that significantly impact our food, water, and energy rating. But also, at the far scale, I see agrivoltaics as the technology that can maximize our farmers and growers’ output from their lands. So agrivoltaics can create the synergy between agriculture, energy, environment, and climate to optimize the most important resources at the farm, particularly the sun, water, and soil – all this to boost land efficiency.”
There are many questions regarding the extent to which farmland agrivoltaics can play a major role in helping to solve California’s — and California agriculture’s — energy and water needs. Call it the water-energy-food nexus. But this shouldn’t stop us from moving forward and experimenting with farmland agrivoltaics. Good research will answer these questions and experimentation and innovation will lead to discoveries not yet thought of.
We shouldn’t put too much faith though that in the short-term agrivoltaics, including Project Nexus, are going to go a long way towards solving the water-energy-food nexus, leading to more water and more clean energy.
Project Nexus – which I’ve referred to as farmland-related agricoltaics – offers (at least theoretically) more opportunity to scale agrivoltaics, in my analysis and opinion. The UC Merced researchers say shading all 4,000 miles of the state’s canals and aqueducts could save as much as 63 billion gallons of water annually by reducing evaporation – enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or provide water to the homes of more than 2 million people. If they do this; shade all 4,000 miles and it works, the results noted above equal significant scale in a single project.
Project Nexus begins this year. It’a “must watch” project when it comes to the nexus of water, energy and food..
Declining water availability is motivating farmers to look at options for using their land. However, despite the potential of agrivoltaics, farmers have to date been hesitant to adopt agrivoltaics because they want to see how it will work in California, its impact on agricultural yield and implementation challenges.
Research institutions, the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the private sector therefore need to take the lead with more agrivoltaic pilot projects in the state in order to offer demonstrations of its potential for farmers to observe. They also need to reach out to farmers to participate by devoting some of their farmland for the demonstration projects.
Agrivoltaics, which is in its infancy, offers a lot of opportunity for California. It needs to be tested though. Research in the form of pilot projects is key.
Also key is to view it as an economic issue rather than a political one. The water-food-energy nexus is and should be non-partisan.
My Job Depends on Ag Magazine columnist and contributing editor Victor Martino is an agrifood industry consultant, entrepreneur and writer. One of his passions and current projects is working with farmers who want to develop their own branded food products. You can contact him at: victormartino415@gmail.com.
