Crops, cows, and solar panels? Why farmers are harvesting sunlight.

The corn has been collected, the cabbage gathered, and the pumpkin season is almost done. But on this University of Massachusetts Amherst research farm, there is still one last harvest taking place – a harvest of sunlight.

“Agrivoltaics,” or dual-use solar panels, are placed between or above rows of plants to collect the sun’s energy. Here, they resemble metal versions of the old orchards that dot other hills in this region. Back in the spring, farmers planted corn, cabbage, and other vegetables below their metal canopies.

To Dwayne Breger, director of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Clean Energy Extension team running this research site, this solar array represents the future of farming – a way to collect energy while also using the land productively, and helping farmers at the same time.

Agrivoltaics, he says, can support the solar needs of Massachusetts and “potentially support the agricultural economy and farmers that are facing various different stresses.”

Those stresses include droughts and financial instability – not only here in Massachusetts, but across the United States.

“Small farming is a tough business,” says Keith Hevenor, communications manager at the Boston-based solar company Nexamp. The decades of predictable income that agrivoltaics can offer, he says, “is giving them that certainty to keep forging ahead.”

There are still hurdles to overcome with dual-use solar, Dr. Breger acknowledges. Installation costs can range as high as $1 million, and tapping into an outdated energy grid can be challenging.

But here in western Massachusetts – a region not exactly known for its sunshine or open landscapes – a growing number of projects are showing just how commercially viable it could be.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

River Strong, associate director, clean energy division (at left), and Dwayne Breger, director of Clean Energy Extension at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, stand near solar panels above corn growing at the university's experimental research farm in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, Oct. 2, 2024.

Solar is growing across the U.S.

Over the past decade, the production of solar power in the U.S. has increased eightfold, according to some analyses, with the cost of both solar panels and power dropping precipitously.

Some analysts expect the industry to triple over the next 10 years.

Most states are embracing the technology to help meet carbon emission reduction goals. Massachusetts, for example, calls for at least 27 gigawatts of solar power to meet its goal of going carbon-neutral by 2050, which would require increasing solar power by more than 400% from the state’s current capacity. Larger states like Texas, where solar projects are growing fastest, expect to add 40 gigawatts of solar power over the next five years.

But solar takes up space. In order to meet these goals, panels will need to span massive amounts of land – land that is often prime for agricultural use.

This has sparked growing criticism of solar power. But it has also prompted new efforts to solve the problem.

Massachusetts was the first state to provide incentives for agrivoltaics. The Northeast does not have the huge prairies conducive for wind farms or the easily accessible geothermal energy that exists in parts of the West Coast. That leaves solar as a renewable energy source – and without the large, open spaces one might find further west, Massachusetts has had to improvise.

“There’s three drivers for [solar] markets,” says Jim Hafner, New England Regional Director for American Farmland Trust, a land conservation group. “One is how sunny it is, which we kind of take a hit on, but the other is the energy prices you’re competing with, and we’re good on that one because our energy prices tend to be quite a bit higher than Arizona, for example. And then the third is what local state level incentives are available. And there again, we’ve been offering more incentives than in other states.”

Those incentives originate from the Commonwealth’s SMART solar program, and include tax credits and grants. On the federal level, the Biden administration recently announced a $71 million investment to advance American solar manufacturing, in addition to another $20 million to improve planning, siting, and permitting processes.

With both state and federal aid, many Massachusetts solar companies have turned to the people who have long tried to make use of the rocky, hilly landscape: farmers.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

A cow stands in a field with a solar array in the background at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s experimental research farm in South Deerfield, Massachusetts.

How do farmers fit into the picture?

Joe Czajkowski is one of the pioneers. His farm in Hadley, Massachusetts, boasts a 2.3 acre array atop his broccoli, large enough to power about 60 homes, he says.

His farm uses refrigeration for both the storage and the delivery of his vegetables. With the solar array, he gets a 15% reduction on his electric bill, he says, “which is more than $5,000 a month” in savings. With this influx of cash, Mr. Czajkowski has been able to expand his solar arrays as well as modernize his vehicles, buying a fully electric delivery van to ship his produce across the state.

When it comes to his crops, Mr. Czajkowski says he’s seen no difference between those under the panels and those elsewhere. Indeed, research from Hasselt University in Belgium shows that the shade provided might actually help the plants combat heat stress and need less water.

And it is not just produce that can be co-utilized with solar farms. Grazing animals between panels has become increasingly popular.

For farmers, owning land and buying food for their animals has historically been an expense to them. But by partnering with companies like Nexamp, “[grazing] becomes a revenue source for them,” the firm’s communications manager, Mr. Hevenor, says. The companies pay farmers to have their animals do “vegetation management” – or, simply, eating.

Other farms are developing pollinator habitats underneath panels.

Lee Walston and Heidi Hartmann, both environmental scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, a federally funded research center, have spent the last few years pairing pollinator habitats with solar arrays. The effects, they found, have been a boon for the region. In addition to rebuilding lost habitats for insects and other pollinators due to climate change, they also boost agricultural productivity of nearby farms.

Farmers have a long history of supporting the energy industry. Every year, U.S. farmers plant around 140,000 square miles of corn, 30% of which is used to produce ethanol. Not only is dual-use solar better for the environment, supporters say, it also produces upwards of 100 times more energy per acre than ethanol.

“It’s a must do, I think, because we’re going to need a lot more solar,” says Mr. Walston. “Current projections are calling for upwards of 10 million acres of solar by 2050 in order to really combat climate change and meet our nation’s clean energy goals.”

And most farmers are open to the idea. As many as 70% are open to large-scale solar projects on their properties, according to the Solar and Storage Industries Institute, as long as they can continue to grow crops.

That’s not to say there aren’t worries among farmers. Some are concerned that installing solar panels will lead to cutting down too many trees. Others are concerned that devoting too much space to agrovoltaics will make it harder for new farmers, who often start out by renting land.

Dual-use solar still makes up a minuscule amount of the solar business, with only 560 dual-use sites for agrivoltaics across the U.S.

But, those who have adopted agrivoltaics remain optimistic.

“Dual-use solar makes a lot of sense on every farm,” Mr. Czajkowski says. “I think you could do some really wonderful things with this.”