Empowering Farms, Ranches, and Rural Communities: The
The emerging field of agrivoltaics – the intentional combination of solar energy generation and agricultural production on the same area of farmland – offers a promising solution that could help
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.
Farmers can benefit from solar energy in several ways—by leasing farmland for solar; installing a solar system on a house, barn, or other building; or through agrivoltaics. Agrivoltaics is defined as agriculture, such as crop production, livestock grazing, and pollinator habitat, located underneath solar panels and/or between rows of solar panels.
Agricultural land in the U.S. has the technical potential to provide 27 terawatts of solar energy capacity. This is a quarter of the total U.S. solar energy capacity of 115 TW. Only 0.3% of farmland is expected to be used for solar energy by 2035. Will using land for solar panels drive up the price of food?
Krisy Gashler is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences. David Nutt contributed to this report. The process of combining agricultural production and solar panels on the same farmland, known as agrivoltaics, has seen a great leap in Cornell research activity.
The emerging field of agrivoltaics – the intentional combination of solar energy generation and agricultural production on the same area of farmland – offers a promising solution that could help
The process of combining agricultural production and solar panels on the same farmland, known as agrivoltaics, has seen a great leap in Cornell research activity.
Explore the benefits, challenges, and future trends of solar panels on agricultural land—boosting sustainable energy, crop yields, and farm income in 2025.
Agrivoltaics merges farming with solar energy, boosting crop resilience, land efficiency, and clean power production.
Agrivoltaics is an innovative approach that combines solar energy generation with agricultural land use. By installing solar panels above crops or alongside farming operations, this system allows for the
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
Agrivoltaics, sometimes referred to as dual-use solar farming, involves the installation of solar panels on farmland in a manner that allows for both energy production and crop cultivation.
Joshua Pearce and Ethan Winter lead efforts to understand the
A new report from the IEA PVPS Task 13, titled “Dual Land Use for Agriculture and Solar Power Production: Overview and Performance of Agrivoltaic Systems,” lays out a compelling vision
Farmers can benefit from solar energy in several ways—by leasing farmland for solar; installing a solar system on a house, barn, or other building; or through agrivoltaics. Agrivoltaics is
Solar Energy & Farmland Solar generated electricity is one of the most afordable types of energy sources (Lazard 2023). Operating solar facilities do not produce pollution, greenhouse gas
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