Black landscaping fabric now covers the bare soil between rows of solar panels on the Big Lake solar farm in rural Sherburne County.
But a couple of weeks ago, this solar farm was producing more than just energy.
Peter Schmitt, director of project management for US Solar, holds a basket overflowing with the last of the harvest: shiny green peppers, bunches of broccoli, kale and spinach, herbs and tomatillos.
“This is a former potato farm,” Schmitt said. “Now, with this pilot project, we are putting some crops back on it, just in kind of a different way.”
US Solar owns the 1-megawatt Big Lake community solar garden and about 80 more in Minnesota. It’s part of a pilot project encouraging farmers to grow crops or graze livestock between and underneath solar arrays — a practice known as agrivoltaics.
Typically US Solar plants its solar farms with a mix of native wildflowers and prairie grasses that attract pollinators, such as bees and butterflies. But increasingly, the company is looking for ways to integrate farming into its solar energy sites, Schmitt said.
“It’s something where we can help the community, we can help build relationships with farmers,” he said. “One way or the other, we have to maintain the land under this site and we want to. But if there’s an opportunity to support local small farmers and provide them access, all the better for us.”
Interest in agrivoltaics is growing, along with the need for land for new solar farms, as Minnesota and the nation shift to cleaner energy. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates 10 million acres of solar panels will be needed by 2050 to meet the nation’s net zero-carbon goals.
Several hundred sites across the country are combining solar with everything from growing squash and blueberries to raising honeybees to grazing sheep, said Stacie Peterson, energy program director of the National Center for Appropriate Technology. It runs the AgriSolar Clearinghouse, a nationwide information-sharing hub.
“It popped up around the world over the last couple decades, and it’s become more common in the last decade,” Peterson said.
The partnerships benefit solar companies by helping manage vegetation, Peterson said. And farmers benefit from improved soil health and extra income.
“We’ve talked with a lot of farmers that (say) this is how they were able to pay for their family farm,” she said. “(With) the money that they get from the solar, they’re able to pay for their taxes. Or they’re able to set up a trust for their kids.”
Agrivoltaics offers other benefits: In hot, dry climates, solar panels provide shade for grazing livestock. Mixing crops with solar energy also can create a microclimate that decreases evapotranspiration, reducing plants’ need for water. And solar panels with crops underneath tend to stay cooler and produce electricity more efficiently, Peterson said.
Source: umn.edu
Photo Credit: istock-shansekala
Categories: Minnesota, Crops, Energy, Harvesting, Livestock