Agrivoltaics as a new way to generate electricity without limiting agricultural production
Photovoltaic (PV) systems integrated into the agricultural environment, known as agrivoltaics, are gaining global attention for their potential to align energy production with agricultural land use. The concept involves co-locating solar energy infrastructure with agricultural activities such as crop cultivation, animal husbandry or environmental improvement to maximise land productivity and create synergies between energy, food and environmental security. In these systems, solar panels provide shade, which can lead to many benefits such as reduced plant stress from drought and increased food production, while reducing the thermal stress on the PV panels themselves. This approach can also improve the water use efficiency of the site, either by using water from panel cleaning for irrigation or by reducing evaporation due to the shading effect of the panels.
Agrivoltaics also offers diverse applications. It is used for growing crops under partially shaded solar panels and for animal husbandry, including cattle grazing and beekeeping. These systems can help mitigate land use conflicts, where solar energy development competes with agriculture for land by enabling simultaneous production of food and energy. In addition, agrivoltaic systems can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. For example, creating a pollinator-friendly environment within solar infrastructure can support native insect pollinators, which is beneficial for both biodiversity and nearby farmland. In terms of environmental impact, photovoltaic energy is a low emitter of greenhouse gases, and integrating agriculture with these systems can further improve climate regulation, air and soil quality, and water retention. This is partly because vegetation in agri-voltaic systems can help sequester carbon, offsetting the already low greenhouse gas emissions from solar PV.
Globally, the agrivoltaic model is being explored and adapted in different regions, including Germany, the US, France, Australia and Africa, each with its own unique approach to combining solar energy production with food production. In the US, more than 2.8 GW of agrivoltaic installations include sheep grazing and pollinator habitat, and the concept is beginning to be commercialized for crop production under solar panels. States such as Massachusetts, New Jersey and Colorado are supporting agrivoltaics through incentives and research funding. In the Czech Republic, there are no officially built agrivoltaics yet, but thanks to the approved amendment to the law on the protection of the agricultural land fund, there will now be no obstacles to their construction.
Agrivoltaics are seen as a way to help farmers adapt to climate change, diversify incomes and improve crop yields and resilience in extreme weather conditions. It also offers potential benefits to the solar industry, such as better panel performance and lower maintenance costs, although it comes with higher investment costs and other challenges that need to be addressed. For communities, especially in rural areas, agrivoltaics can sustain the economics of farmland and provide a balance between energy and agricultural land use. However, more research is needed to fully understand community adoption of these systems and their overall economic and environmental impacts. For this purpose, I have decided to pursue a PhD program in Energy Engineering at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Czech University of Life Sciences and begin research to understand how agrivoltaics can fit into agricultural communities and economies, including the development of new technologies to facilitate these systems and reduce costs.
