Agrivoltaics can reduce local opposition to solar projects on farmland and create new income streams across rural stakeholder groups. Agrivoltaics significantly reduces water usage and
View Details
As shown in Map 1, roughly 18% of ground-mounted PV facilities in the U.S. were installed between 2021 and 2023, with a notable portion of these projects built on former cropland or
View Details
Solar energy is depleting farmlands of their rich soils in the U.S. Midwest. The solar industry is moving into the U.S. Midwest, drawn by cheaper land rents, access to electric
View Details
Solar energy is leading the way, with much of the new development occurring on farmland and in rural communities. It has the potential to be a financial opportunity for landowners, yet it can
View Details
Solar and wind farms occupy a sliver of rural land — an
View Details
This farmer-centered approach ensures that the land under the solar array is actively used for agriculture, helping to mitigate the loss of farmland. One notable benefit of agrivoltaics is that it
View Details
Future solar-energy land use will not exceed one-half of one percent (0.5%) of total U.S. land mass, even under the most aggressive growth projections. The land-use needs of solar energy
View Details
Solar and wind farms occupy a sliver of rural land — an estimated 424,000 acres in 2020 — but the large majority of renewable energy projects installed in recent years are located on
View Details
With solar farms and wind turbines increasingly being built in rural areas, questions have emerged about the long-term consequences for agricultural land cover and productivity.
View Details
Agrivoltaics, or the co-location of agriculture with solar energy systems, includes beneficial practices such as growing crops beneath panels, grazing livestock on solar sites, and the inclusion of pollinator
View Details
From 2012 to 2020, more than 90 percent of large-scale, commercial wind turbines and 70 percent of solar farms in rural areas were installed on agricultural land (either cropland or pasture-rangeland).
View DetailsPDF version includes complete article with source references. Suitable for printing and offline reading.
