This report updates readers on new research in dual-use solar and explores important considerations for the implementation of dual-use solar in the Pacific Northwest region. In the last few years, new findings suggest there are many environmental and economic benefits of creating multi functional systems that combine and prioritize multiple land uses. New research of dual-use solar facilities shows increased yields in some crops and decreased water needs; benefits to grazing animals such as decreased heat stress; improved ecosystem services such as better water quality, erosion control, carbon storage, and pollination services; and further opportunities for dual-use implementation.
Realizing that less effort has been made to reconcile solar development with biodiversity conservation, researchers in this article provide a framework that uses a unique land-sharing approach and is based on five pillars that cover key aspects of solar park planning and maintenance: (1) eco-smart siting in the landscape, which considers ecological interactions with the landscape matrix and trade-offs between multiple small vs. fewer large solar parks; (2) eco-smart park layout to address the ecological aspects of the spatial configuration of solar park infrastructure; (3) creation of diverse, novel grassland ecosystems with high ecosystem service provisioning capacity using a trait-based ecosystem design approach; (4) management of the novel ecosystem throughout the lifespan of the solar parks; and (5) ensuring stakeholder engagement to integrate this in a viable business model with high community acceptance.
By Carl Berntsen, NCAT Energy Engineer
May 2023
This guide serves as an introduction to the solar industry, relative to agrisolar development in the United States, community programs, and solar ownership or lease opportunities for homes, farms, and ranches. It covers ownership options for small-scale, single-user solar installations, community solar installations that distribute power throughout a community, and utility-scale installations that sell power to the utility, as well as common utility-scale land-lease components for landowners looking to allow a developer to construct and operate a solar installation on a portion of their land. Finally, using nationwide average statistics on production and cost, the guide offers a financial snapshot of a utility-scale solar installation.
This paper highlights the higher annual solar irradiation incident of single-axis N-S trackers installed on sloping terrain, as compared to horizontal ones. Researchers showcase the results of a year-long experiment in which a N-S aligned single-axis tracker prototype was used in Gijón, Spain. The experimental results confirm the trends in the formulas and simulations. Finally, theoretical values for the energy gain for different slopes, at locations over the northern hemisphere between latitudes of 6◦ and 60◦ are provided. These gains can reach values up to 13.5%.
The current work has a reviewed agrivoltaic projects in India and identified the management practices, constraints, cost econmoics and policy framework. A review of works done on solar park impact assessment and mitigation mechanism by agrivoltaics are done in detail. The work has considered agrivoltaics from a social aspect and focused on impacts due to loss of livelihoods and associated externalities under social impact classification. The social impact assessment concludes that, livelihood impacts can lead to extinction of cultures, urban migrations, growth of uncontrolled peri‑urban regions, the long-term impacts are beyond economics.
This study aims to discover how lettuce and potato crops are impacted by the shade of photovoltaic (PV) panels. Four scenarios are considered, with varying parameters such as latitude, azimuth, slope, and row distance between PV modules. The results reveal a significant potential for growing potatoes under PV modules. However, lettuce faces difficulties due to its high requirement for solar intensity (PAR), making it less adaptable to shade. The findings of this study indicate that crops like potatoes, which have a lower requirement for PAR, can be successfully cultivated in conjunction with PV systems.
In this study, researchers used field measurements and a plant hydraulic model to quantify carbon-water cycling in a semi-arid C3 perennial grassland growing beneath a single-axis tracking solar array in Colorado, USA. Although the agrivoltaic array reduced light availability by 38%, net photosynthesis and aboveground net primary productivity were reduced by only 6–7% while evapotranspiration decreased by 1.3%. The minimal changes in carbon-water cycling occurred largely because plant photosynthetic traits underneath the panels changed to take advantage of the dynamic shading environment. The results indicate that agrivoltaic systems can serve as a scalable way to expand solar energy production while maintaining ecosystem function in managed grasslands, especially in climates where water is more limiting than light.
As part of Berkeley Lab’s Community-Centered Solar Development (CCSD) project, this research set out to explore deep insights and perceptions from large-scale solar (LSS) stakeholders that only qualitative data can provide to identify key factors driving project success or threatened failure. Case studies, such as those utilized in this research, are uniquely adept at capturing the subjective experience of individuals and at identifying variables, structures, and interactions between stakeholders. Our case studies included 54 semi-structured interviews across 7 different LSS sites, representing a diversity of geographies, project sizes (MW), site types (i.e., greenfield, agrivoltaic, and brownfield / contaminated sites), zoning jurisdiction types, and more. In addition to local residents living in close proximity to these LSS sites, we interviewed other key stakeholders involved in the projects such as developers, decision-makers, utility representatives, landowners, and individuals from community-based organizations. The overarching aim of this case study research was two-fold: (1) to inform subsequent tasks in the CCSD research project (including an upcoming national survey of LSS neighbors), and (2) to provide insights into the following set of research questions: -What are the key positive and negative drivers leading to support and opposition to LSS projects? -To what extent do LSS projects exacerbate or mitigate perceived inequities and marginalization within hosting communities and how can those inequities be mitigated going forward? -What strategies can communities employ to align LSS development with local land-use plans and community needs and values?
In this study, researchers tested hypotheses on the extent to which varying image content representing different types of grassland use affects the visual perception and acceptance of agrivoltaics. In the before-and-after comparison, the acceptance of agrivoltaics increased significantly only for grasslands and special crops. The results suggest that attitudes towards agrivoltaics are rather stable and cannot be easily modulated by additional information.
Solar grazing is on the rise in the United States with dozens of new operations springing up across the country. However, with all of this growth in mind, an important question remains: if a grazier wants to enter the solar grazing market, how much will it cost, and how much revenue can they generate? Budget templates exist that can provide a grazier with guidelines, but hard data on grazier costs and revenues is more difficult to come by.
Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Bock Agricultural Law & Policy Program set out to answer this question as a project through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s ASTRO InSPIRE Seed Grant Program. Undergraduate students Tyler Swanson and Quin Karhoff, supported by Post-Doctoral Researcher Jessica Guarino and Professor A. Bryan Endres, conducted a survey of American solar grazing practitioners to gather data on common capital and labor investments, as well as operation sizes and revenue streams. The researchers hope that the findings of the survey will help graziers interested in entering the solar grazing market better understand what costs and revenues they can expect and contribute to more accurate budget tools for potential solar graziers. The results of the survey are included in their fact sheet The Economics of Solar Grazing.
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