Survey Finds 70% Of US Farmers Are Open To Large-Scale Solar On Farmland

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If large-scale photo voltaic tasks can permit for the continued use of their land for agricultural manufacturing, 70% of US farmers are open to the thought of photo voltaic developments on their farmland, in keeping with the outcomes of a brand new survey from the Photo voltaic and Storage Industries Institute. The survey, which sought to measure the opinions about photo voltaic on farmland from a whole bunch of farmers and photo voltaic builders, plus some utility stakeholders, is the primary of its variety within the US, and was used to construct a brand new report laying out a few of the obstacles to new agrivoltaic tasks.

The report is one half of a bigger mission which is being funded by the US DOE Foundational Agrivoltaic Research for Megawatt Scale (FARMS) program, with the purpose of finding out current obstacles to agrivoltaics after which creating suggestions to beat them, as whereas there are a rising variety of small agrivoltaics tasks, solely a couple of tenth of large-scale photo voltaic tasks at the moment implement agrivoltaics of their design, per NREL.

In accordance with the report “Understanding Barriers to Agrivoltaics: A Survey Approach,” as much as 70% of farmers are open to large-scale photo voltaic on farmland, so long as dual-use or an agrivoltaic strategy is included within the design of these programs. This strategy would allow the farmers to get supplementary revenue from photo voltaic, whereas nonetheless with the ability to proceed their farming operations round and below the photo voltaic array.

“This report shines a bright spotlight on the reality that farmers and ranchers can play a significant role in helping us keep the lights on with clean energy. Agrivoltaics remain one of the smartest ways for farmers, big and small, to maintain their operations while speeding up clean energy deployment at the same time. This report confirms that, under the right circumstances farmers and solar developers want to work together, and our job now is to deliver the tools and resources they need to make that process easier.” — Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation

Nevertheless, the report additionally discovered that farmers had been “far more likely to support distributed solar projects on farm property,” corresponding to smaller-scale photo voltaic arrays that may be used “to directly power the farm operations,” whereas lower than half of the farmers who responded to the survey could be in favor of utility-scale photo voltaic tasks on farmland. Greater than 78% of these respondents “were “somewhat” or “very” involved with utility-scale photo voltaic impacts on farmland value and entry, whereas 77% had some degree of concern round utility-scale photo voltaic impacts on farmland preservation.” Moreover, 42% stated they had been “very concerned” about utility-scale photo voltaic’s impacts on farm productiveness, and 40% had been very involved about impacts on soil high quality.

“The research shows most farmers are interested in exploring solar, provided that they have enough information to make good business decisions and continue farming. With the survey complete, we will develop case studies on the factors that influence project economics and outcomes in agrivoltaic projects, helping solar developers and farmers overcome the ongoing challenges they face.” — David Gahl, Photo voltaic and Storage Industries Institute Government Director

The report additionally acknowledged that though 30% of the farmers responding to the survey had been “consistently opposed large-scale solar under any condition,” they had been additionally “less likely to be familiar with agrivoltaic design concepts,” which factors to the need for added training about agrivoltaics with a view to enhance help for photo voltaic growth on farmland.

From the attitude of the photo voltaic builders surveyed, virtually half of them stated they “believe that solar on farmland will make up a majority of their future business opportunities,” and a few 80% of photo voltaic builders acknowledged that they plan to incorporate agrivoltaics methods of their tasks sooner or later. Nevertheless, “certain techniques, such as elevating panels to allow for farm equipment access, are still seen as difficult to implement” by a big majority, and “system designs that typically require the elevation of solar panels beyond typical heights are seen as much harder” by photo voltaic builders. One potential path for mitigating these considerations is a rise in availability of “specialized hardware for agrivoltaics installations,” which can come about via better demand for agrivoltaics driving an “increased supply of agrvivoltaic-specific hardware solutions and ultimately, greater supplier competition and lower prices.”

There’s quite a bit to unpack about photo voltaic on farmland within the new 64-page report from the Photo voltaic and Storage Industries Institute, so should you’re fascinated by agrivoltaics as a key component of a clear power future, you’ll be able to obtain it right here: “Understanding Barriers to Agrivoltaics: A Survey Approach.“