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Title: The 5 Cs of Agrivoltaic Success Factors in the United States: Lessons from the InSPIRE Research Study

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1882930· OSTI ID:1882930
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [6];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [1];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [13];  [15]; ORCiD logo [1] more »;  [6];  [5];  [16];  [1];  [2] « less
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  3. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)
  4. SolCon (Solar Conservation Services), Sedalia, CO (United States)
  5. Temple Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
  6. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
  7. Connexus Energy, Ramsey, MN (United States)
  8. Jorge Figueroa Environmental Solutions, LLC, Lafayette, CO (United States)
  9. Lightsource bp, Ithaca, NY (United States); American Solar Grazing Association, Ithaca, NY (United States)
  10. Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States)
  11. Minnesota Native Landscapes (MNL) Corp., Otsego, MN (United States)
  12. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
  13. Hyperion Systems, LLC, Amherst, MA (United States)
  14. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
  15. Univ. Politecnica de Catalunya (Spain)
  16. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The concept of agrivoltaics (combining agriculture and solar photovoltaics technologies on the same land in novel configurations) has emerged as an approach to mitigate conflicts between solar and agricultural activities by providing mutual benefits and added values to each sector. The U.S. Department of Energy has supported agrivoltaics research since 2015 through its Innovative Solar Practices Integrated with Rural Economies and Ecosystems (InSPIRE) research project (National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2022). The InSPIRE project is the most comprehensive coordinated research effort on agrivoltaics in the United States and has examined opportunities and tradeoffs at over 25 sites across the country that span crop production, pollinator habitat, ecosystem services, animal husbandry, and d. Integrating research sites with active commercial agricultural operations can introduce unique challenges for conducting research. This synthesis aims to highlight the technical and non-technical insights from InSPIRE agrivoltaic field research sites from 2015-2021 to support i) appropriate deployment of agrivoltaic projects; ii) more successful research on agrivoltaics; and iii) more effective partnerships on agrivoltaic projects. The synthesized lessons discussed here are focused less on specific case study outcomes (i.e., the percent change in crop yield in an agrivoltaics configuration), and instead more on the elements that enable and facilitate agrivoltaics projects to be installed and operated along with research to be conducted at those sites. We find that there are some insights that are applicable across all types of agrivoltaic projects, while ecosystem service projects and crop production agrivoltaic projects can often have other unique considerations.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308; EE00034165
OSTI ID:
1882930
Report Number(s):
NREL/TP-6A20-83566; MainId:84339; UUID:d2125da1-c682-4761-a7eb-505c44118f14; MainAdminID:65131
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
14 SOLAR ENERGY
agrivoltaics
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InSPIRE
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