An international research team reviewed agrivoltaic systems, highlighting challenges in design, crop performance, and PV efficiency, while mapping their global potential. They call for innovative layouts, targeted crop selection, and improved modeling to maximize energy yield and land-use efficiency.

The U.S. Department of Energy has supported agrivoltaics research since 2015 through its Innovative Solar Practices Integrated with Rural Economies and Ecosystems (InSPIRE) research project (National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2022).

Plants like sunlight, it helps them grow. So, it is understandable that many people think the more sunlight the better. Surprisingly, this is wrong. Each plant has an optimal amount of sunlight that depends on many factors, and it turns out that full sunlight is too much for many of them.

Agrivoltaics pairs solar with agriculture, creating energy and providing space for crops, grazing, and native habitats under and between panels.

Agrophotovoltaic production combines crop growing and/or animal husbandry practices underneath ground-mounted solar panels. By generating renewable energy, conserving water and making an efficient use of resources, it can open the way for a low-carbon, climate change-resilient future.

Cornell University researchers demonstrated that tracking solar panels in agrivoltaic systems can protect crops from wind damage while allowing airflow, outperforming traditional single-row tree windbreaks.

State of the Science on the Potential to Successfully and Profitably Co-Locate Solar Panels with Agricultural Production

Agrivoltaics can reduce local opposition to solar projects on farmland and create new income streams across rural stakeholder groups

For years, the rise of renewable energy has been presented as a trade-off. To save the planet, we were told, we had to sacrifice the soil. Large-scale solar installations often replaced vital cropland, threatening food security and local economies, leading to what some call "land grabs" and the displacement of the very communities these projects were meant to serve.

While the Trump administration disincentivizes solar developments on farms, agrivoltaics continue anyway, with local and state support.

A four-year study found that overhead solar panels in an Australian pear orchard reduced sun and hail damage but decreased fruit yield and blush coloration.

Agrivoltaics is the use of land for both agriculture and solar energy generation. It attempts to solve multiple problems at once – increasing renewable energy production, increasing sustainable food production, and preserving land and water resources. There are many benefits, but also significant challenges.

In a context of intense global competition in the solar sector, agrovoltaics is emerging as a profitable and scalable alternative.

A new National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) report says Massachusetts’ solar-on-farmland policy framework offers lessons for developers navigating both opportunity and regulatory complexity.

For decades, we’ve been told that we have to choose between: clean energy or food; Progress or rural livelihoods; Solar farms or farmers. That framing is wrong—and it’s holding us back.