In the face of the pressing demand for sustainable and efficient energy solutions worldwide, agrivoltaics emerges as a pioneering concept at the intersection of agriculture and renewable energy. This innovative approach harnesses the power of the sun while coexisting harmoniously with agricultural practices. In this first part of our two-piece introduction to agrivoltaics, we explore the motivations driving the adoption of agrivoltaics and its vast potential to revolutionize land use. The second part will discuss diverse system types that have emerged, the challenges faced, and noteworthy pioneering projects that showcase the transformative power of this sustainable technology.

The Motivation for Agrivoltaics

We know everything about the main driver behind the development of Agrivoltaics: It’s called climate change.The aim of Agrivoltaics is to limit global warming and at the same time minimize its damage. To this end, Agrivoltaics is working on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus. But what is that all about?

Climate Crisis is a Water Crisis

The climate crisis is a water crisis. The effects of this crisis include heavy rainfall, which causes flooding, erosion and landslides. Extreme weather events like hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons cause damage to infrastructure, loss of life and pollution of water sources through flooding and runoff.

At the same time, higher temperatures lead to droughts, drying up of lakes, rivers and reservoirs, which affects the availability of freshwater and leads to water scarcity. Agriculture is severely affected by all these consequences for people and the planet: Agriculture consumes 72% of all withdrawn freshwater resources (UN Water).

In order to mitigate the most severe effects of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions must achieve a state of net-zero by 2050. Since fossil fuels account for almost 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions, renewable energies must be expanded massively (United Nations).

Situation of the Farmers

Climate change is not the only threat to farmers. They have to compete on a global market with low prices, which makes it difficult to run their business in a sustainable way, both financially and environmentally.

Protests

The stress that farmers have to deal with varies from country to country, depending on the local climate and economic conditions. Currently, farmers in France block the highways around Paris, protesting against the low income they generate under the prevailing structure of the food market (The Guardian). The situation in Germany is similar: Farmers protest nationwide reacting to an announcement of the German Government. It had planned to cut subsidies for diesel and vehicle tax (DW).

Dependence on Subsidies

Those plans have been softened, however, the problems for European farmers are fundamental. They highly depend on subsidies given out by the EU (DW). For example, 70% of the available subsidies for German agriculture is given to farmers based on their farm size (Federal Information Center Agriculture), which favors big companies. This may seem as a European problem, but the reality is that the EU is the biggest exporter of food and the third biggest importer worldwide (European Commission). So the European regulations on agriculture have a global impact. 

Let’s take a look at the situation in the US. The 2018 Farm Bill authorized $428 billion over the 5 year period from 2019-23 and was extended by President Biden (Economic Research Service). The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, commonly known as the 2018 Farm Bill, is a comprehensive piece of U.S. legislation that reauthorized significant funding for agricultural programs. Pros of the bill include its provision of support, certainty, and stability for farmers, ranchers, and forest managers, contributing to the overall resilience of the agricultural sector (USDA). Additionally, the bill addresses commodity support and introduces modifications to Department of Agriculture programs through FY2023, aiming to enhance the industry’s sustainability (Economic Research Service). However, critics argue that the bill’s allocation of funds and certain policy provisions may not effectively address pressing issues such as environmental concerns and income inequality among farmers. Balancing these perspectives is essential to understanding the multifaceted impact of the 2018 Farm Bill on the nation’s agricultural landscape.

The World is Growing

In addition to climate change, we are dealing with another global trend: A growing world population. And this population wants to be fed. To sustainably feed the projected population of over 9 billion by 2050, global food production would need to rise by 50% (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Note that 735 Million people were undernourished in 2022 (Statistical Federal Office) and climate changes leads to a loss of 10 million hectares of arable land every year (Environmental Federal Office) while nutritional values of food fall (National Geographic).

How to Face the Dilemma? 

Climate change and the growing world population seem to be leading to a dilemma. On the one hand, the energy industry needs land to expand renewable energies such as wind power and photovoltaics. On the other hand, agriculture needs to produce more food under more difficult conditions. One might think that a competition for land use is emerging. But the supposed dilemma is not one, because it has a solution: Agrivoltaics.

The Potential of Agrivoltaics

By combining food production and renewable energy generation on the same land, an agrivoltaics configuration increases the land use efficiency. At the same time, the causes of the climate crisis are being addressed and its inevitable consequences mitigated. Let’s illustrate this with an example: 

A farmer is using his land 100% to cultivate crops. They might receive an offer from a solar company to rededicate the land, stop producing food and instead install 100% solar panels to earn money by leasing the land to the solar company. This is the situation of an apparent land use conflict: 100% agriculture or 100% solar power?

Now let’s take a look at how an agrivoltaics system would change the situation. By installing a solar system that allows the cultivation of crops under or between the panels, for instance, the farmer might install solar panels with 83% of the power compared to a traditional solar system. The slightly decreased power is due to the specifics of a solar system being designed for agricultural uses compared to an optimized system which doesn’t allow agricultural activities.

How would such a system affect the crop yield? 

This highly depends on the specific crop and the climate conditions of the region where the crops are grown. With potatoes, for example, the farmer might even see a higher yield in a hot dry year due to UV stress reduction caused by shading provided by the solar panels. Let’s say the crop yield rises to 103% compared to a field without solar panels. (Numbers from: Fraunhofer).

Summarized: Instead of choosing between 100% crop yield or 100% energy yield, the farmer gets 186% combined both food and electricity production. This is how agrivoltaics increase land use efficiency.

How Both Farmers and Solar Developers Benefit

By utilizing the higher land use efficiency of agrivoltaics compared to a traditional set up, both farmers and solar developers can profit. Here is an overview of the potential benefits:

Benefits for Farmers:

• Resilience to Climate change
• Ability to stay in production under stressed climate conditions
• Potential for a higher crop yield
• Shading for workers, crops and cattle
• Wind protection
• Less soil erosion
• Hail Protection
• Additional Source of income

Benefits for Solar Developers:

• Higher panel efficiency due to the cooling microclimate under the panels
• Cooling effect and higher yield of vertical panels due to a higher heat transfer coefficient (PV Magazine)
• Obtain permissions by local authorities to develop solar projects because agricultural production can be maintained
• Grid serving production curve of vertical bifacial panels facing east and west

The Potential for the US and Worldwide

Agrivoltaics offer a solution to promote the expansion of renewable energies and at the same time strengthen the resilience of agriculture. But how high is the land potential and how much land is needed to achieve the expansion targets?

For the US, the Biden-Harris Administration has established an objective to achieve decarbonization of the electricity sector by 2035. Solar energy, currently contributing approximately 4% to the U.S. electricity supply, plays a pivotal role in realizing this decarbonization goal. According to the Solar Futures Study conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy, it is projected that solar energy could potentially account for up to 40% of U.S. electricity generation by 2035. To achieve this significant scale of solar deployment, an estimated 5.7 million acres, equivalent to 0.3% of the contiguous land area in the United States, may be required (Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energies).

In addition to various other installation types, agrivoltaics can play a role in advancing these initiatives, potentially leading to an increase in photovoltaic (PV) power ranging from 40 to 70 GW. This boost could be achieved solely by converting lettuce cultivation to agrivoltaic systems in the United States (H. Dinesh, J.M. Pearce).

Forecasts from other parts of the world are similarly optimistic. Researchers from Denmark have investigated the potential for Europe. They came to the conclusion that agrivoltaic systems have the potential to generate electricity that is 25 times the current electricity demand in Europe (PV Magazine). The potential of this technology is enormous and only a fraction of the agricultural land would be needed to make a significant contribution to a sustainable energy supply.

Conclusion

Rising temperatures, water shortages and heavy rainfalls are threatening agriculture fundamentally. At the same time, a growing world population and competitive global markets put additional pressure on farmers’ shoulders. Agrivoltaics, the combination of agriculture and solar PV has an enormous potential to protect agriculture productivity and profitability while mitigating climate crisis by generating renewable energy. But what does the concrete technical implementation look like? And which pioneering projects harness the power of the sun twice already today? Those questions will be answered in the second part of our article series “What is Agrivoltaics”.