Solar Harvest Coming to a Field Near You

More research and work is being done to expand the use of agrivoltaics in North America.

Two "agri-dreamers" believe agrivoltaics promise a highly profitable harvest for many North American farmers and ranchers.

Joshua Pearce and Ethan Winter lead efforts to understand the impact and encourage large-scale solar power generation on farmland. Agrivoltaics, a relatively new term, unites cropping practices and solar panels on the same fields.

Installed solar panels can provide a perennial electrical energy harvest, feeding directly into the power grid.

Lease payments for the dual land use could offset increasing price stress from extreme weather, variable harvests, and lower commodity prices.

Well-established programs exist throughout Europe, as well as in Japan and China.

"Agrivoltaics has emerged as a formal pillar of the energy plan for countries with scarce farmland, including France, Germany, and Italy," Winter explains.

It's catch-up time in North America. Here, old-school, first-generation solar fields are increasing but still rare.

Herds of sheep graze on some projects. That's starting to change.

Pearce and Winter predict the U.S. and Canada will install solar tracker technology: solar panels that follow the sun, improving growing conditions while boosting energy yields by 20% or more.

Fields of Opportunity

Pearce calls agrivoltaics in dunk" opportunity. "A few percent of agricultural land in the U.S. could power the entire country," he asserts.

Pearce, who came to Canada in 2021 from Michigan Tech University, is an academic engineer, known for work with solar energy, open-source technical development, 3D printing, and nanotechnology.

He is chair of information technology and innovation at the University of Western Ontario's Thompson Centre for Engineering Leadership and Innovation.

In his latest research paper, Pearce posits that as little as 1% of Canadian farmland could provide a quarter to a third of Canada's electrical energy needs.