Because the world appears to be like for tactics to supply extra with much less, agrivoltaics gives a contemporary strategy: combining photo voltaic panels and agriculture on the identical land. By producing renewable vitality whereas supporting crops and livestock, this dual-use system can enhance farm productiveness, strengthen native economies, and make agriculture extra resilient to a altering local weather. Uncover how agrivoltaics is redefining what it means to “farm the solar” on this article by Lisa Sandtner.
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Obtainable house for photovoltaic (PV) methods is proscribed – however there may be additionally no restrict to creativity on the subject of discovering appropriate areas for his or her set up. There are tasks working in varied international locations, a part of which entails photo voltaic vitality being built-in into rail infrastructure, for example in Switzerland or Japan. Photo voltaic highway cycle paths or large-scale energy vegetation on deserted golf programs are simply a few of many different examples.
This text, nevertheless, focuses on PV methods on agricultural land, so referred to as agrivoltaics. The time period refers back to the mixed use of land for agriculture and electrical energy technology. PV methods are mounted at a sure top on agricultural land, and crop manufacturing or animal husbandry can occur beneath the elevated panels or in-between rows, for example. Agrivoltaics may even allow triple land use: the simultaneous use of land for photo voltaic photovoltaic energy technology and agriculture while incorporating water administration options into the infrastructure. Integrating photo voltaic expertise into agricultural actions enhances local weather resilience by offering movable shade, lowering water consumption, enhancing soil well being and defending crops and livestock from excessive warmth. For farmers, agrivoltaics can present an extra supply of earnings, as might be learn on this weblog submit.
Within the EU, agrivoltaics alone might overachieve the EU 2030 targets for PV by protecting a mere 1% of the EU’s utilised agricultural space – that corresponds to 944 GW of put in capability as a substitute of the focused 720 GW. Policymakers have additionally develop into conscious of this potential, mirrored within the EU Farming Technique ‘Imaginative and prescient for Agriculture and Meals’. In 2025, the European Fee for the primary time recognised photo voltaic vitality as a ‘complementary instrument for agriculture, offering vitality safety, lowering GHG emissions, and – critically – providing farmers further income streams’. It additionally marks the primary time the European Fee has built-in photovoltaics right into a broader technique extending past electrical energy manufacturing. Whereas there are at the moment round 200 tasks underway, there may very well be considerably extra in future.
Therefore, the potential for agrivoltaics within the EU is large. However how about different components of the world – might political incentives and the switch of know-how additionally contribute to the deployment of PV on agricultural land and the following advantages elsewhere?
Whereas sizzling and dry areas with excessive photo voltaic radiation don’t current an impediment, however really present beneficial circumstances for PV, agricultural actions are too typically difficult in these areas. That is true for a lot of African international locations, for example. Africa has an enormous potential for renewable vitality technology, notably in photo voltaic photovoltaics. Nonetheless, photo voltaic vitality nonetheless has a low market share in Africa’s total vitality combine, and round 600 million folks nonetheless lack entry to electrical energy on the continent. On the identical time, the United Nations predict that by 2030, Africa would be the continent with the most individuals affected by starvation. Whereas it might be naive to imagine that agrivoltaics can resolve this unacceptable actuality, PV on agricultural land is slowly gaining traction on the African continent. Might the expertise alleviate the scenario at the very least to some extent?
Safety in opposition to warmth and water loss, and improve in crop yields
As talked about earlier, agrivoltaics can permit for the cultivation of crops by defending them from warmth stress and water loss. The shading the PV panels present improves the microclimate beneath the photo voltaic panels and lowers the temperature on the bottom, boosting agricultural productiveness. A venture in Algeria, for example, has proven that agrivoltaics can result in significantly greater yields, in addition to measurement of the crops. Moreover, areas which have develop into infertile or that face progressive soil degradation resulting from excessive warmth and drought might be restored with the assistance of agrivoltaics, whereas the beneficial rising circumstances additionally permit for a greater variety of higher-value crops to be cultivated, all while enhancing meals safety. The shading from the PV panels additionally lowers water demand by lowering water loss by evaporation. In the meantime, agrivoltaic methods additionally permit for rainwater harvesting – that is notably useful in dry and sizzling areas, the place entry to water is already restricted.
Native energy technology and sustainability
By means of agrivoltaics, renewable electrical energy is produced straight on farming websites, which is especially invaluable for rural areas with unstable or no energy provide. The electrical energy that the PV modules generate not solely supplies entry to wash vitality for the farmers and their agricultural enterprise, but additionally for the native inhabitants, which in flip would assist SDG7 (inexpensive and clear vitality for all). Agrivoltaics may even generate vitality at decrease price than the vitality equipped by the nationwide grid, as has been proven in Tanzania and Kenya. In parallel, the greenhouse gasoline emissions of the farming unit might be decreased, if the electrical energy generated is used straight on website, therefore enabling extra environmentally pleasant farming and contributing to local weather change adaptation.
New sources of earnings and jobs
The twin use of land for meals and energy manufacturing may result in a double earnings for farmers. The elevated number of crops already talked about, in addition to a possible earnings from the panels (e.g. by feed-in tariffs for surplus vitality), can enhance and diversify farmer incomes. Concurrently, the set up, upkeep and operation of the PV modules additionally create jobs – even in structurally weak areas or in deprived rural areas.
Land use and land use conflicts
Throughout the African continent, land administration points stay a major problem, pushed by fast inhabitants development, the local weather disaster and weak governance constructions, in addition to infrastructure tasks equivalent to photo voltaic farms that oftentimes encroach on farmland. Furthermore, the rising electrical energy demand fuels conflicts over agricultural land and contributes to deforestation, threatening each ecosystems and agricultural productiveness. Agrivoltaic methods might enhance this example to some extent, as they allow the environment friendly and mixed use of land. Moreover, giant components of the African continent have big photo voltaic assets. To call however two examples, South Africa, with over 80% of the land receiving excessive quantities of photo voltaic vitality and almost 80% devoted to agriculture, gives untapped potential of twin land utilization by agrivoltaics, and in East Africa, photo voltaic radiation is as much as seven instances higher than in Central Europe, which might flip the area into a significant beneficiary of agrivoltaics.
Conclusion
Accordingly, the benefits of agrivoltaics are huge on the African continent, and because of excessive photo voltaic radiation, they could even be higher than in Europe. Political incentives and funding programmes that assist the event of agrivoltaics may very well be a significant lever to grasp the a number of advantages the expertise has. Whereas agrivoltaics continues to be within the early levels on the African continent, the switch of know-how and coverage programmes, such because the Water-Vitality-Meals-Ecosystems Nexus, an strategy specializing in built-in coverage options that align water, vitality and agriculture for mutual profit, have the potential to enhance meals and vitality safety, all while benefiting the local weather and the native inhabitants.
The views and opinions on this article don’t essentially replicate these of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union | International Dialogue.
