A new “agrivoltaics” initiative looking to prove the commercial viability of integrating solar power plants with agriculture has won the favour of Brussels. The EU is backing German renewable energy company BayWa, in a first-of-its-kind scheme that could be a win-win for farmers and the climate.  In order to develop the project, BayWa has secured €6.5mn from the EU’s LIFE Programme (which has a total of €5.43bn available for the period 2021 to 2027). Armed with fresh funding, the company looks to build six so-called agrivoltaics projects across five European countries by 2027. Agrivoltaics involves combining solar power generation and…

Using a minuscule part of agricultural land to simultaneously generate solar power would greatly contribute to the European Union’s 2030 renewable energy goals, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre found in its agrivoltaics study. Combining agriculture and photovoltaics into so-called agrisolar or agrivoltaics on just 1% of utilized agricultural area in the EU could bring 944 GW of peak capacity online. The figures are from the Overview of the Potential and Challenges for Agri-Photovoltaics in the European Union, issued by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre or JRC. It reached the result by assuming 600 kW would fit on every hectare, as…

As world leaders prepare to gather at COP27 amid a global energy crisis, climate change and renewables are sharply in focus. At the same time, increasing climate resilience across food systems will be needed to counter rising hunger and malnutrition, according to UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid. Agrivoltaic farming could be a solution to not just one but both of these problems. It uses the shaded space underneath solar panels to grow crops. This increases land-use efficiency, as it lets solar farms and agriculture share ground, rather than making them compete against one another. And certain crops appear to thrive…

You may have seen the word “Agrivoltaics” occasionally on the internet recently; or even if you haven’t, we’re here to explain what agrivoltaics are and how it can benefit the farming industry. What are Agrivoltaics? Agrivoltaics is a perfect combination of solar panels and plants on farmland. Agrivoltaics involves combining crops with photovoltaic panels, installed with enough height to allow farm machinery to pass underneath. The challenge is to generate crops and energy simultaneously and without conflict.1 In the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus, agrivoltaics delivers eco-friendly solutions: 1. The plants, protected by the solar panels from the worst of the midday sun’s…