Small US State Launches Game-Changing Agrivoltaic Project

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One of many smallest states within the US has been punching method above its weight when it comes to put in photo voltaic capability for nearly 25 years, and it’s not stopping there. A brand new statewide undertaking is within the works to attract extra farms into the agrivoltaic motion, during which photo voltaic panels and agriculture mix for mutual profit.

An Agrivoltaic Resolution For The Backyard State

When you guessed the state in query is New Jersey, both you caught the Backyard State reference otherwise you’re studying this now. Both method, New Jersey holds the #10 place for put in photo voltaic capability in a 50-state rating. That’s fairly a feat for a state that sits down at #46 by land mass.

To additional complicate the prospects for photo voltaic progress, New Jersey is a densely developed state sandwiched between Philadelphia and New York Metropolis, full of suburban cities, malls, roadways, railways, and business exercise together with main airports and seaports. That leaves little room for the type of sprawling photo voltaic arrays widespread in Texas and different land-rich states.

To shrink the pool of accessible area additional, New Jersey ranks excessive on the dimensions of land put aside for public parks and wildlife conservation. One survey places it at 20%, second solely to Alaska.

That explains why a lot of the expansion in photo voltaic capability has consisted of rooftop photo voltaic arrays, car parking zone canopies, and different small-scale installations. Agriculture contains one of many few remaining sectors during which personal property will not be already developed for different makes use of.

An Agrivoltaic Undertaking On Each Farm

Solar developers have been encountering rising opposition in rural communities, however the 2022 New Jersey agricultural census signifies that farmers within the state are already amenable to infrastructure that leverages photo voltaic vitality. The census consists of farms incomes annual income, or potential income, of $1,000 or extra. As of 2022, it confirmed that greenhouse operations lead the state’s agriculture trade together with nurseries, floriculture, and sod manufacturing.

“New Jersey ranks fifth in the nation in nursery stock sales at $296 million and is third in potted flowering plant sales at $77.5 million,” the NJ Division of Agriculture defined in a recap of the 2022 census posted earlier this yr.

Of word, the census additionally revealed the New Jersey outstrips bigger states within the manufacturing of sure specialty crops and row crops, two areas during which agrivoltaic exercise is starting to ramp up. That features eggplant (#3 in state rankings), cranberries and asparagus (#4), and blueberries (#5). The Agriculture Division additionally lists New Jersey within the Prime 10 for peaches, plums, bell peppers, spinach, bok choy, escarole, and different crops.

Agrivoltaic Tasks, From Megawatts To Gigawatts

In a state the place farmers are already squeezed for area, farms are additionally getting smaller. That development can be in keeping with the potential for agrivoltaic initiatives to maximise the usage of area. The 2022 census confirmed that the quantity of acres farmed in New Jersey fell in accord with nationwide traits, however the variety of farms rose by 115 to hit 9,998. In distinction, the variety of farms within the US fell by 7%.

Agrivoltaic initiatives may complement the state’s rising agritourism sector. Regardless of the interruption of the COVID-19 outbreak, farmer income from agritourism in New Jersey topped $29 million in 2022, up from $18 million in 2017.

Towards this backdrop, in October the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities introduced the launch of the brand new Twin-Use Agrivoltaics Pilot Program. Billed as one of many first dual-use agrivoltaic packages within the nation to be carried out on a statewide foundation, the three-year program is aiming at a complete of as much as 200 megawatts over the following three years.

That’s only for starters. The Utilities Board notes that its NJBPU Photo voltaic Program has shepherded the set up of greater than 205,000 photo voltaic initiatives in New Jersey since its inception in 2000, for a complete capability of 4.9 gigawatts. Final yr the Photo voltaic Program held a record-setting tempo for functions, bringing the overall as much as 6.2 gigawatts if initiatives within the pipeline are included.

Analysis culled from collaborating farms within the Twin-Use Program will assist a everlasting program, full with building and operation requirements that can assist speed up extra widespread adoption. The Rutgers University Agrivoltaic Program is charged with administering this system.

In an fascinating twist, BPU additionally notes that its group photo voltaic program has been taking off. Community solar projects are one other space during which agrivoltaic practices are starting to emerge, offering new enterprise alternatives for native livestock grazers and different farmers.

? Keep tuned for a Discover of Availability someday in January. Updates can be posted on the BPU website and the New Jersey Clean Energy Program web site, or join BPU and Clean Energy listservs.

The Twin-Use Motion Has Simply Begun

CleanTechnica has been following the agrivoltaic motion since 2018, when researchers on the US Division of Power and elsewhere started to assemble proof that some crops can thrive within the partial shade of photo voltaic panels. The shade additionally fosters a supportive microclimate for soil and water conservation, whereas the cooling impact of vegetation helps to increase solar conversion efficiency (see heaps extra dual-use background here).

Within the following years, a lot of the exercise has targeted on livestock grazing or habitat restoration with a deal with pollinator-friendly crops that assist close by crops. Extra not too long ago, the agrivoltaic subject has branched out with an help from new, vertical bifacial solar technology. Rutgers not too long ago put in the primary such vertical photo voltaic panels in New Jersey at its farm in New Brunswick, to evaluate how the vertical configuration can facilitate hay mowing in addition to livestock grazing.

The case for agrivoltaics can be gaining consideration for its position in stopping a catastrophic decline within the world insect inhabitants. Final yr, researchers from the Power Division and tutorial companions printed the outcomes of a five-year research assessing the impacts of habitat restoration on the grounds of utility-scale solar arrays.

“We found increases over time for all habitat and biodiversity metrics: floral rank, flowering plant species richness, insect group diversity, native bee abundance, and total insect abundance, with the most noticeable temporal increases in native bee abundance,” the analysis staff concluded. General, they assessed that insect communities responded to the habitat restoration undertaking on the comparatively speedy tempo of lower than 4 years.

In one other key discovering, the researchers discovered that bee visitations from the photo voltaic array to a close-by soybean subject have been akin to the visitations from a close-by farmland preserved underneath the US Division of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program.

That’s fascinating from a rural photo voltaic improvement perspective. The CRP is tasked with serving to farmers restore marginal lands. It covers hundreds of thousands of acres underneath 10-15 yr contracts. If utility-scale photo voltaic arrays can obtain related targets whereas producing clear kilowatts, then a lot the higher.

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Photograph (cropped): Area-saving bifiacial PV technology is a brand new addition to the dual-use agrivoltaic motion, which permits farmers to proceed working their land whereas realizing earnings from photo voltaic initiatives (courtesy of Rutgers College).