Farmers discover innovative new way their land can pull double duty: 'It doesn't have to look the way it did when your grandparents started farming'

Agrivoltaics is reshaping the agriculture industry, benefitting farmers and the planet. 

According to The Appalachian Voice, agrivoltaics is when land is used for agriculture and solar farming. With solar panels raised off the ground, this brilliant system allows land to pull double duty.

For a long time, there has been tension between the agriculture and solar industries. Solar farms take up land that could be used for agriculture. In some situations, farmers were forced off their land to make room for solar, destroying their livelihood. 

Agrivoltaics eliminates this problem. Farmers can keep farming, and solar panels can produce energy that doesn't contribute to pollution. 

Burning dirty energy sources releases harmful carbon pollution, which raises the Earth's temperature and accelerates the changing climate. Solar energy is a green alternative, providing energy without pollution.

Not only can farmers continue to use the land for agriculture, but they can also make more money. 

Cody Moore, a sheep-grazing farmer in Tennessee, explains, "If it weren't for these solar farms, there would be no way I could do this … There's just no other way."

He pointed out that combining the profits of solar with farming takes "some of the volatility out of the agricultural market." Agrivoltaic setups protect farmers' livelihoods while giving them a new, more stable source of income. 

Solar companies, like EnergySage, benefit too. Farmers maintain the land, ensuring the panels aren't blocked by overgrown vegetation. Technically, the sheep and cattle take care of that with their snacking. 

It's not just grazing sheep and cattle. Beekeeping farms, greenhouses, and crop farms can all operate with solar panels above them. The panels are raised high enough for plants to get all the sunshine they need.

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Agrivoltaics is a win for farmers, solar companies, and the whole planet. Even the land wins. 

Jess Gray, the CEO of Gray's LAMBscaping, a solar grazing farm, told TAV: "I wish more people would recognize that dual-use solar is a fantastic idea because we're getting clean energy but also taking time and almost letting the field be fallow again."

The InSPIRE agrivoltaics map shows 599 sites across 64,689 acres of farmland, producing 10,310 megawatts of power. That's enough to power over one million homes. But there is plenty more land that could be used for agrivoltaics.

According to Silo, Texas, Montana, and Kansas have the most farmland, holding over 25% of all U.S. farmland. Texas has six agrivoltaics installations, Montana has two, and Kansas has zero. On the other hand, states like Minnesota and Massachusetts have dozens. 

There are over 1.8 million U.S. farms across 876 million acres. If every farmer adopted agrivoltaics, it could theoretically power most or all U.S. homes. 

Elon Musk has even said, "If you wanted to power the entire United States with solar panels, it would take a fairly small corner of Nevada or Texas or Utah … You only need about 100 miles by 100 miles (6.4 million acres)," per Inovateus.

Gray highlighted, "It's about getting people to understand that agriculture changes, and it's supposed to change … It doesn't have to look the way it did when your grandparents started farming."

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