Examining Existing Policy to Inform a Comprehensive Legal Framework for Agrivoltaics in the U.S.

This study applies Legal Framework Analysis to identify barriers and opportunities for a comprehensive legal infrastructure to enable agrivoltaics in the U.S. e State of Massachusetts is used as a case study to understand what elements of their regulatory regime contribute to their novel agrivoltaic policy program, while also considering the surrounding federal and local government dynamics in which this state program is embedded.

The case study shows that a comprehensive legal framework for agrivoltaics should arguably include a combination of federal and state energy financing mechanisms coupled with favorable state and local land use policies. Specifically, a state-level feed-in tariff and local government allowances for mixed land use between solar and agriculture will be the key features of an enabling legal framework.

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The Agricultural, Economic and Environmental Potential of Co-Locating Utility Scale Solar with Grazing Sheep

The study revealed that grazing sheep on solar sites is a cost-effective method to control on-site vegetation and prevent panel shading. At no time in the growing season did vegetation shade the panels. Maintenance was less labor-intensive than traditional landscaping services and, thus, less expensive. The grazing trial at the Musgrave solar site was a full success for the site owners and operators, as well as the sheep farmer.

The aim of this study was to compare economic and agricultural benefits and challenges of traditional land management strategies (mowing, string trimming) with rotationally grazed sheep on solar sites. Sheep were grazed between May and November 2018 to obtain agronomic and economic data, as well as to gather knowledge of the feasibility of grazing sheep on solar sites.

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Land Use Conflicts Between Biomass and Power Production – Citizens’ Participation in the Technology Development of Agrophotovoltaics

This paper addresses the concern that despite the technical feasibility of renewable energy technologies and their contribution to climate-friendly power production, public opposition can be a hurdle for new installations of renewable energy installations, including agrivoltaic operations. This study assesses citizens’ perceptions of the Agrophotovoltaics (APV) technology by applying the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) concept.

In the workshop conducted in this paper, citizens’ perception on APV before building the first pilot plant was investigated to analyze relevant aspects for the innovation process and its framework at an early stage of the technology development process. This paper describes the impact of APV on landscape, biodiversity, economy, and on the requirements for regulatory framework.

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Planning and Zoning for Solar Energy Systems

The purpose of this guide is to help Michigan communities meet the challenge of becoming solar- ready by addressing SES within their planning policies and zoning regulations. This document illustrates how various scales and configurations of photovoltaic SES fit into landscape patterns ranging between rural, suburban, and urban. This guide will aid in community development and guidance related to public policy decisions related to solar energy development, which often includes agrivoltaic operations and development as well.

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Stakeholder Interactions Around Solarsiting on Agricultural Lands: Toward Socio-Agrivoltaic Interventions

This study includes discussion on key benefits, tensions, and paradigms influencing farmers and farming communities’ decisions to host utility-scale solar generation. The first goal of this study is to develop a conceptual map of stakeholder interaction(s) around utility-scale solar deployment on agricultural lands. The second goal includes the critique of agrivoltaic solutions that fail to consider stakeholder priorities as technological fixes.

Scientists and engineers have recommended agrivoltaics to solve conflicts between land use for energy versus agriculture. The study discusses and focuses on stakeholder perceptions and paradigms about using agricultural land, particularly prime farmland. The study covers the question of how does the existing context of energy and agricultural systems affect solar siting, and how are stakeholders interacting to coproduce decisions?

The results of this study provide a conceptual map of stakeholder interaction on solar development on agricultural lands and argues that agrivoltaics are currently treated as a “technological fix.”

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UV-selective Organic Absorbers for the Cosensitization of Greenhouse-Integrated Dyesensitized Solar Cells: Synthesis and Computational Study

This report discusses the synthesis of four new symmetrical UV-absorbing diimides organic dyes for potential cosensitization process in greenhouse-integrated dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Molecular cosensitization is favorable for manipulating solar radiation through the judicious choice of cosensitizers having complementary absorption spectra. For greenhouse-integrated dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), the manipulation of solar radiation is crucial in order to maximize the flow of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) for the effectual photosynthetic activity of plants; meanwhile, non-PAR is utilized in agrivoltaics for generating electricity.

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Effects of total system head and solar radiation on the techno-economics of PV groundwater pumping irrigation system for sustainable agricultural production

This report discusses the effects of solar radiation and total system head on techno-economics of a PV groundwater pumping irrigation system designed for sustainable agricultural production. The materials and methods of the study include crop water requirements, estimated pumping rates, estimations of PV-array ratings and solar charge controllers, and economic estimations of PV-pumping system(s). The results of the study also include an environmental impact analysis.

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Identifying Photovoltaic Water Pumping (PVWP) Systems Opportunities in Albanian’s Agriculture Context

The study shows that installing a Photovoltaic Water Pumping System (PVWP) system represents the best technical and economic solution to drive a water pump that provides water for sprinkler irrigation. This application could be applied in AgriSolar operations that include sprinklers and agricultural land.

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Planning and Zoning for Solar Energy Systems

The purpose of this guide is to help Michigan communities meet the challenge of becoming solar ready by addressing SES within their planning policies and zoning regulations. This document illustrates how various scales and configurations of photovoltaic SES fit into landscape patterns ranging between rural, suburban, and urban.

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Waveguide Concentrator Photovoltaic with Spectral Splitting for Dual Land Use

This research presents a highly transparent concentrator photovoltaic system with solar spectral splitting for dual land use applications. The system includes a freeform lens array and a planar waveguide. Sunlight is first concentrated by the lens array and then reaches a flat waveguide. The dichroic mirror with coated prisms is located at each focused area at the bottom of a planar waveguide to split the sunlight spectrum into two spectral bands. The red and blue light, in which photosynthesis occurs at its maximum, passes through the dichroic mirror and is used for agriculture. The remaining spectrums are reflected at the dichroic mirror with coated prisms and collected by the long solar cell attached at one end of the planar waveguide by total internal reflection. Meanwhile, most of the diffused sunlight is transmitted through the system to the ground for agriculture. The system was designed using the commercial optic simulation software LightTools™ (Synopsys Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA). The results show that the proposed system with 200× concentration can achieve optical efficiency above 82.1% for the transmission of blue and red light, 94.5% for diffused sunlight, which is used for agricultural, and 81.5% optical efficiency for planar waveguides used for power generation. This system is suitable for both high Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) and low DNI areas to provide light for agriculture and electricity generation at the same time on the same land with high efficiency.

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