Lighting the Way for Agrivoltaics: How NREL Empowers Communities To Capture the Benefits of Solar Energy, Agriculture, and Ecosystems

By Sara Fall

With their reflective, smooth glass sheen, stiff metal posts, and electric wiring, you might be surprised to learn that solar fields can be sites of thriving biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, and community bonding.

Three years ago, when representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) first started talking with Josie Hart—a farmer and the associate director of Farm Programs for the Denver Botanic Gardens—she could not have imagined what was possible as a farmer on a solar site.

"I tried to picture a solar field, and I just saw miles of solar panels low to the ground. I didn’t have the best opinion of solar on farm country. For me, as a farmer, it made me so sad to see good productive land go to solar panels," Hart said. "But I learned a lot from NREL researchers about how solar installations can be used to enhance farming and that it’s not just about the solar panels—it’s about the mutual benefits of colocating solar with farming."

Agrivoltaics is the practice of bringing together agricultural activities and photovoltaics (PV)—using the same land to harvest solar energy and reap agricultural benefits, like grazing, crop production, increased pollinator habitat, and soil health.

The Denver Botanic Gardens now boasts a new 1.2-MW, 4.5-acre agrivoltaics facility at its Chatfield Farms location, which is a 700-acre native plant refuge and working farm about 20 miles southwest of downtown Denver, Colorado.

“When you walk into the space under the solar panels, the crossbars are 8 feet high. Everything is very high up and spread out, and it’s green and cool and shady. The space is organized, and it feels like an easy place to grow things,” Hart said. “There are sunflowers, a group of mourning doves lives there, and native flowers grow around the exterior. And there’s sainfoin, a cover crop that blossoms early in the year and attracts bees. It’s also a legume, so it helps restore soil. It’s not a sterile space.”

For over nine years, researchers from NREL’s Innovative Solar Practices Integrated with Rural Economies and Ecosystems (InSPIRE) project have been researching the colocation of solar and agriculture as part of research funded through the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office.

At first, the challenge was to introduce the concept of agrivoltaics to solar developers, researchers, farmers, and the public and address the question, “Does this really work?” Over time, the challenge was to prove that there can be mutual benefits of bringing together solar and agriculture by conducting research on over 20 agrivoltaics sites. Now, NREL researchers are aiming to refine and adapt the practices of agrivoltaics to meet the specific and varying needs of diverse communities and farms.