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DOE OSTI · 1958728

InSPIRE 2.0 (Final Technical Report)

Macknick, Jordan·Hartmann, Heidi
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Abstract

Co-locating solar projects and agriculture can provide mutual benefits to local farmers (e.g., dual revenue streams, increased yields from pollinator services, irrigation reductions) and to the solar projects (e.g., reduced timeline/costs for installation and O&M, expanded market, increased PV efficiency from a cooler, vegetated microclimate). While prior work sought to demonstrate the feasibility of agricultural co-location (or "agrivoltaic") opportunities, there is a fundamental gap in data available to developers, landowners, and state agencies that prevents widespread deployment of these mutually beneficial practices. This project addressed this gap by (1) establishing a stakeholder research working group composed of multi-sector industry leaders and academics to provide guidance and assist with outreach; (2) undertaking targeted field-based research projects evaluating solar and agriculture co-location tradeoffs; (3) conducting analysis and modeling studies that complement the field-based research; and (4) developing a data portal to consolidate all data on this topic in one location.

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14 SOLAR ENERGY29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMYAgrivoltaicsASTROEnvironmentInSPIRESolar

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Macknick, Jordan, Hartmann, Heidi. 2023-02-01. InSPIRE 2.0 (Final Technical Report). https://doi.org/10.2172/1958728

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