“To decarbonize our energy grid, we need about a thousand gigawatts of solar deployment, up from a hundred fifty gigawatts today.
That doesn’t require a ton of land, about six million acres of land, or only about a third of a percent of all the land in the contiguous United States.”
Dr. Becca Jones-Albertus,
Director, Solar Energy Technologies Office,
US Department of Energy
Above, big energy companies seeing a combination of Agriculture and solar as a win-win.
No one should oversell this just yet. It is a long way from being able to grow corn or soybeans under solar panels. Some leafy green crops do well under panels, but there is more development to be done on seeding, cultivation and harvesting techniques that will fit with a solar array.
Raising solar panels high enough to allow large farm machinery would be significantly more expensive.
Sheep grazing is a good fit at this time, as the sheep are small enough to graze under the panels, and docile enough that they do not damage the equipment.
Below, Aaron Ostrander is a young farmer in Azalia, Michigan, hoping to combine solar panels with grazing.
If you’re grazing under PV’s ALL the wiring better be in metal conduits. Especially if you’re grazing goats.
They did mention the goat problem.
I look forward to establishing a different standard for taller solar that’s made for operations underneath, whether crops or cattle or parking lots. It would be more expensive to set up, of course, but it would be part of a dual-use application.