Survey Finds 70% Of US Farmers Are Open To Giant-Scale Photo voltaic 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 concept of photo voltaic developments on their farmland, based on 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 tons of 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 number of the obstacles to new agrivoltaic tasks.

The report is one half of a bigger challenge which is being funded by the US DOE Foundational Agrivoltaic Analysis for Megawatt Scale (FARMS) program, with the purpose of learning present obstacles to agrivoltaics after which growing 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 present implement agrivoltaics of their design, per NREL.

In keeping with the report “Understanding Obstacles to Agrivoltaics: A Survey Method,” 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 earnings from photo voltaic, whereas nonetheless with the ability to proceed their farming operations round and underneath the photo voltaic array.

“This report shines a vibrant highlight on the truth that farmers and ranchers can play a big function in serving to us hold the lights on with clear vitality. Agrivoltaics stay one of many smartest methods for farmers, massive and small, to take care of their operations whereas dashing up clear vitality deployment on the identical time. This report confirms that, underneath the precise circumstances farmers and photo voltaic builders wish to work collectively, and our job now could be to ship the instruments and sources they should make that course of simpler.” — Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Photo voltaic Power Industries Affiliation

Nevertheless, the report additionally discovered that farmers have been “way more prone to assist distributed photo voltaic tasks on farm property,” comparable to smaller-scale photo voltaic arrays that will be used “to immediately energy the farm operations,” whereas lower than half of the farmers who responded to the survey can be in favor of utility-scale photo voltaic tasks on farmland. Greater than 78% of these respondents “have been “considerably” or “very” involved with utility-scale photo voltaic impacts on farmland worth and entry, whereas 77% had some stage of concern round utility-scale photo voltaic impacts on farmland preservation.” Moreover, 42% mentioned they have been “very involved” about utility-scale photo voltaic’s impacts on farm productiveness, and 40% have been very involved about impacts on soil high quality.

“The analysis reveals most farmers are curious about exploring photo voltaic, supplied that they’ve sufficient data to make good enterprise choices and proceed farming. With the survey full, we’ll develop case research on the components that affect challenge economics and outcomes in agrivoltaic tasks, serving to photo voltaic builders and farmers overcome the continued challenges they face.” — David Gahl, Photo voltaic and Storage Industries Institute Govt Director

The report additionally said that though 30% of the farmers responding to the survey have been “constantly opposed large-scale photo voltaic underneath any situation,” they have been additionally “much less prone to be aware of agrivoltaic design ideas,” which factors to the need for extra schooling about agrivoltaics with a purpose to enhance assist for photo voltaic improvement on farmland.

From the angle of the photo voltaic builders surveyed, virtually half of them mentioned they “imagine that photo voltaic on farmland will make up a majority of their future enterprise alternatives,” and a few 80% of photo voltaic builders said that they plan to incorporate agrivoltaics methods of their tasks sooner or later. Nevertheless, “sure methods, comparable to elevating panels to permit for farm gear entry, are nonetheless seen as troublesome to implement” by a big majority, and “system designs that usually require the elevation of photo voltaic panels past typical heights are seen as a lot tougher” by photo voltaic builders. One potential path for mitigating these considerations is a rise in availability of “specialised {hardware} for agrivoltaics installations,” which can come about by way of higher demand for agrivoltaics driving an “elevated provide of agrvivoltaic-specific {hardware} options and finally, higher provider competitors and decrease costs.”

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 if you happen to’re curious about agrivoltaics as a key ingredient of a clear vitality future, you’ll be able to obtain it right here: “Understanding Obstacles to Agrivoltaics: A Survey Method.“