Agrivoltaics To Rescue US Farmers From Ron Vara

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The rapidly growing agrivoltaics movement enables farmers to secure source of extra income from solar energy while continuing to conduct farming activities on their land. That extra income is needed now more than ever in the US, where farmers everywhere are bracing for the impact of President Trump’s market-crashing, recession-inducing torrent of tariffs.

Why tariffs? Why now? Who knows! Ask the expert economist, Ron Vara. Better yet, ask top Trump economic advisor, Peter Navarro. Back in 2019, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times identified Mr. Vara as a fictitious character invented by Navarro himself, jumbling the letters n-a-v-a-r-r-o with the apparent aim of lending expert credibility to his musings on tariffs and economic policy. Take Navarro’s seminal work on the topic, Death by China, for example. Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up….

Agrivoltaics To The Rescue: It’s Complicated

Advocates list soil health, water conservation, and biodiversity opportunities among the benefits of agrivoltaics, in which solar panels combine with farming activities on the same land. The rapidly growing solar grazing movement is one example of agrivoltaics in action.

The benefits of agrivoltaics for growing food crops are more complicated. After all, solar panels take up space and they cast shade. Farmers in need of revenue have to balance their solar energy income against a reduction in available land and sunlight for growing crops.

Enabling farmers to assess an agrivoltaic project before the shovels hit the ground would be helpful. Researchers in Europe, for example, recently introduced a new dual-use assessment tool for placing solar panels in apple orchards.

Researchers at Cornell University in New York are also among those working on in that space, and they have published their solution in the latest issue of the journal Applied Energy.

In contrast to other agrivoltaic assessment formulas, the Cornell team deployed fractional programming, a methodology that has been applied to various other agricultural systems going back into the 20th century.

In 1999, researchers from the University of Córdoba in Spain were among the first to propose FP for assessing sustainability in agriculture. “But surprisingly, although output/input ratios arise naturally in many economic problems very few real applications of FP have been reported, particularly in the field of agriculture,” they noted, indicating a knowledge gap in the field.

“Perhaps, the lack of friendly procedures for solving the models is one of the main reasons,” they added, proceeding to provide just such a model.

A Friendly Tool For Assessing Agrivoltaics

The Cornell team reports they have cracked the FP code as applied to agrivoltaics. “We propose an FP model to optimize AgV practices that balance economic and environmental objectives while minimizing irrigation use,” they write.

“This approach enables an innovative evaluation of system efficiency by comparing benefits as ratios, highlighting differences between traditional farming and AgV-integrated sites with various land allocation strategies,” they add.

As described by the Cornell team, FP modeling affirms the benefits of solar panels in terms of reducing the need for irrigation. However, crops win out in terms of economic benefits. The model reveals that allocating 90% of land for crops yields the highest revenues. On the other hand, to hit environmental goals — namely, emissions reductions — the FP  model indicates that crops should be limited to a maximum of 60 % of land.

Notably, the FP methodology indicates that emissions related to agrivoltaic land use are lower than emissions from separate crop and solar projects.

The researchers also emphasize that the FP models provide actionable information, but they do not determine the outcome. “Ultimately, site design choices should align with decision-makers’ goals, whether prioritizing economic, environmental, or balanced system efficiencies,” they conclude.

More Agrivoltaics In Action

Despite a spike in federal support during the Biden administration, the US has been lagging behind the global agrivoltaics curve. The dictator-adjacent Commander-in-Chief who currently occupies the Oval Office has made things worse for US farmers. Even before he trotted out last week’s round of tariffs, Trump was already poisoning the well in Canada, motivating boycotts of US foods and other products.

Trump’s ability to override the complacent Republican majority in Congress was also on full display when he dismantled USAID, pulling the financial rug out from under farmers and food producers who were contracted for sales by the program.

“The Trump freeze on federal disbursements is yet another financial catastrophe in the making,” CleanTechnica observed last month. “Farmers who contracted for on-site solar projects through the Agriculture Department’s REAP loan and grant program are left holding the bag for thousands of dollars invested up front.”

Pro tip: Next time, don’t vote for the convicted felon.

Meanwhile, new agrivoltaics projects are blossoming elsewhere around the world. One hotspot is New Zealand, where the UK firm Harmony Energy is celebrating the start of construction on the country’s biggest solar farm to date, located at Te Aroha in Waikato. The solar array will host flocks of sheep along with biodiversity improvements including wetlands restoration and native plantings.

“The solar farm, which is expected to be commissioned by late 2026, will cover 182 hectares and generate 280 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, enough renewable electricity to supply the equivalent of approximately 35,000 New Zealand homes and businesses,” Harmony explains.

“The project demonstrates how government, industry, and financial institutions can work together to meet New Zealand’s energy security and climate goals,” Harmony emphasized. “The Government’s Fast Track Act plays a key role in enabling renewable energy development and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

Meanwhile, Back In The US

With the federal government in a state of collapse, some US states are picking up the agrivoltaics ball and running with it. Keep an eye on California, where Governor Gavin Newsom has vowed to take trade relations into his own hands.

Among other actions, last week Governor Newsom also deployed a new state law to fast-track a 300-megawatt agrivoltaics project in Fresno County. “The site was carefully selected to be on non-prime agricultural land, ensuring it does not disrupt valuable farmland,” the Governor’s Office explained.

“The project will use a dual-use model, with sheep grazing alongside solar panels to help manage vegetation, reduce fire risks, and improve soil health,” they added.

Image (cropped): A new agrivoltaics assessment tool can help US farmers weight the financial and environmental impacts of combining solar panels with crops on their land (courtesy of US DOE).