What is agrivoltaics? | Science News

With the recent boom in clean energy development, more and more farmers are interested in leasing their fields to solar power utilities, often forcing them to abandon traditional crop production or grazing in the process. Now researchers in the growing field of agrivoltaics hope to provide scientific insights and guidance to make it possible to produce food and power at the same time. While sheep grazing on solar farms has already demonstrated feasibility and ecological benefits, these researchers are discovering that co-locating crops and solar panels may prove to be a tough row to hoe.

Credits:

Production, Videography and Editing
Luke Groskin

Story Editing
Ashley Yeager

Additional Video and Stills
Center for Energy Education (C.C. BY), Clean Energy Resource Teams (C.C. BY)
Enel North America, Getty, Innover, Kaan Kutural/UC Davis,
National Renewable Energy Laboratory,
One Less Traveled By (C.C. BY), Pond 5, Sol Systems (C.C. BY), Sun’Agri

Music
Audio Network