This guide aims to help farmland owners understand solar energy development and the solar energy leasing process. While the guide includes specific information for Ohio, much of the information in the guide is relevant for farmland owners in any state. Authors present initial considerations for farmers, as well as an explanation of common legal documents and terms in solar leasing. The final chapter of the guide organizes solar leasing issues into a checklist tool that reviews questions to ask and actions to take when thinking about solar energy development on the farm.
Tag Archive for: Agrivoltaics
In this study, researchers outline practical considerations for grazing land adaptations with an eye towards our changing climate. Flexibility and learning under uncertainty are the overall themes, with an emphasis on collaborative research between researchers and land managers.
Understanding circularity and landscape experience in agrivoltaics contributes to enabling agriculture transitions and increasing public acceptance. This study examines these topics in built agrivoltaic projects reported in scientific literature, and provides recommendations for researchers, farmers, and policy makers to pay more attention to landscape experience while constructing agrivoltaic sites.
The AgriSolar Policy Guide was designed to facilitate policy learning and innovation in the United States. The intention of this guide is not to advocate for certain initiatives, but to provide a central platform for education and engagement and to support policy innovation for better co-location.
This study presents a strategy for scheduling water delivery by irrigation pumps, synchronizing energy production in solar photovoltaic modules and minimizing the installation size. An optimization algorithm is proposed, which changes the energy required by pumping devices and adjusts them to the available solar energy supply, minimizing the number of panels required. The results of the study provide a tool for managers and decision-makers when evaluating the possibility of converting their irrigation network into a stand-alone system supplied by photovoltaic panels.
This study focuses on the dual use of the water area at a small-scale shrimp farm in western Taiwan for solar photovoltaic electricity generation and aquaculture. Based on the simulation results and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, recommendations are made for the design and operation of a solar-powered aeration system for shrimp farms.
This Article describes how information gaps, externality problems, and local opposition are hindering agrivoltaics development in the United States and identifies specific laws and policies capable of enabling agrivoltaics to flourish.
Written for the AgriSolar Clearinghouse by Heidi Kolbeck-Urlacher, Center for Rural Affairs
This report provides decision makers and others an overview of policy approaches to combining solar with agriculture and offers considerations on how regulations can facilitate dual-use.
Commodity or Specialty: Tracking Pollinator-Friendly SRECS
“The M-RETS platform—the leading renewable environmental attribute tracking system used by Fortune 25 companies, utilities, and regulators—this year will begin tracking an additional environmental attribute associated with grid-scale solar projects: a pollinator-friendly designation. M-RETS already tracks solar renewable energy credits (called S-RECs) and Minnesota is one of a number of states that have created an official standard and system recognizing solar projects that utilize ground cover that provides meaningful benefits to pollinators, song birds, and game birds.
This additional data gives solar energy buyers the opportunity to encourage the development of pollinator-friendly solar and stack additional environmental benefits on their energy purchase.” – M-RETS
This can be thought of as if your company is buying a commodity product or a specialty product. If these options are the same price, would your company prefer to buy a commodity SREC or a boutique SREC?
Spade Develops Agrivoltaic Software
“Solar developer and federal grant recipient Sandbox Solar has released a beta version of its agrivoltaic power plant software modeling tool that aids in the design and optimization of solar panels and the crops underneath.
Sandbox Solar, a solar contractor, has been developing a (software) tool, called Spade. Spade aims to help solar developers determine the best crop types and solar panel layouts for their projects. The tool made it into the fifth and final round of the Department of Energy’s “American Made” solar innovation program.” – PV Magazine
Spade is a stakeholder in the AgriSolar Clearinghouse.
Global Agrivoltaics Market Valued at $9.3 Billion
“Agrivoltaics, the combination of farming practices with energy produced by solar photovoltaics (PV), is forecast to become a $9.3 billion marketplace by 2031, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1% in that timeframe from $3.6 billion a year ago, according to a research note by India-based market research company Allied Analytics.” – PV Magazine
Solar Could Play Important Role in Cannabis Industry
“Solar energy and cannabis cultivation are old bedfellows. PV pioneer John Schaeffer has even credited solar with facilitating the northern California cannabis industry, which in turn supported the nascent PV sector. Now, as the legalization of medical and recreational cannabis gathers pace, solar continues to perform a key role.
Canndescent Senior Director of Compliance Andrew Mochulsky told PV Magazine the Colorado Desert’s unrelenting sunshine and limited cloud cover make solar a no-brainer. ‘We’re in the heart of solar and wind country so it made sense to bring solar online,’ he says. ‘We also think it’s just the right thing to do.’”– PV Magazine
Join the AgriSolar Clearinghouse team for our webinar series with this round-table discussion featuring innovative solar designers Helical Solar, Sun Agri, Hyperion, Sandbox Solar, Solargik, RUTE Agrivoltaics, Soliculture, Stracker Solar, Taka Solar, and Sunstall!
THE LATEST
AgriSolar News Roundup: Agrisolar in Nova Scotia, Albania Agrisolar Law, World Soil Day December 11, 2024 - 12:48 pm
Case Study: Fiddlehead FarmsNovember 21, 2024 - 8:24 am
SCAPES Agrivoltaics Survey November 12, 2024 - 4:29 pm