A First Investigation of Agriculture Sector Perspectives on the Opportunities and Barriers for Agrivoltaics

Authors

Alexis Pascaris, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow
Chelsea Schelly, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow
Joshua M. Pearce, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-28-2020

Department

Department of Social Sciences; Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Abstract

Agrivoltaic systems are a strategic and innovative approach to combine solar photovoltaic (PV)-based renewable energy generation with agricultural production. Recognizing the fundamental importance of farmer adoption in the successful diffusion of the agrivoltaic innovation, this study investigates agriculture sector experts’ perceptions on the opportunities and barriers to dual land-use systems. Using in-depth, semistructured interviews, this study conducts a first study to identify challenges to farmer adoption of agrivoltaics and address them by responding to societal concerns. Results indicate that participants see potential benefits for themselves in combined solar and agriculture technology. The identified barriers to adoption of agrivoltaics, however, include: (i) desired certainty of long-term land productivity, (ii) market potential, (iii) just compensation and (iv) a need for predesigned system flexibility to accommodate different scales, types of operations, and changing farming practices. The identified concerns in this study can be used to refine the technology to increase adoption among farmers and to translate the potential of agrivoltaics to address the competition for land between solar PV and agriculture into changes in solar siting, farming practice, and land-use decision-making.

Publisher's Statement

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10121885

Publication Title

Agronomy

Recommended Citation

Pascaris, A., Schelly, C., & Pearce, J. M. (2020). A First Investigation of Agriculture Sector Perspectives on the Opportunities and Barriers for Agrivoltaics. Agronomy, 10(12). http://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10121885
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/14955

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Version

Publisher's PDF