Agrivoltaics 101 Resources Provide a Guide Toward Implementation

Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) has helped numerous communities plan for and implement agrivoltaic systems, and technical assistance providers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are working to share key learnings from those projects with other communities looking to follow in their footsteps.

Agrivoltaics allow for the dual use of land through the deployment of on-farm solar while maintaining land underneath and/or in between solar panels for agricultural production. The practice can integrate crop production and livestock grazing, among other activities.

C2C’s Expert Match program—a U.S. Department of Energy initiative that pairs communities with researchers from national laboratories to provide short-term technical assistance to address clean energy goals—has worked with about 23 communities to explore opportunities for agrivoltaics, such as the Black Farmers’ Collaborative in Florida. Agrivoltaics researchers at NREL who have supported these projects compiled key takeaways from these engagements into a series of five fact sheets that provide fundamental information for communities at various stages of their agrivoltaic journeys.

The following Agrivoltaics 101 resources are designed to help communities learn more about considerations for developing agrivoltaic projects.

llustration by Tom Hickey and Al Hicks, NREL

1. Agrivoltaics Basics offers an overview of the most fundamental concepts of agrivoltaics, including potential agrivoltaic systems and configurations, and benefits and tradeoffs of implementation.
   
2.  Agrivoltaics Technical Assistance provides an overview of agrivoltaics technical assistance services, successful case studies, and deliverables from past participant involvement in technical assistance programs.
   
3. Agrivoltaics Groundwork includes suggested foundational activities to undertake before building an agrivoltaic system to increase the overall impact, success, and longevity of a project.
   
4. Agrivoltaics Pathway gives an overview of the site-specific planning and implementation steps needed to build an agrivoltaics project on a farm.
   
5. Agrivoltaics Designs and Configurations highlights key technological considerations to help farmers design agrivoltaic configurations that meet their needs and goals. 

More in-depth analysis and guidance on agrivoltaics projects is available on NREL’s Innovative Solar Practices Integrated with Rural Economies and Ecosystems (InSPIRE) website.

C2C offers short-, medium- and long-term technical assistance opportunities for communities to pursue clean energy goals. In addition to C2C’s short-term assistance for agrivoltaics projects through Expert Match, the program also developed a six-month peer-learning cohort themed around implementing an agrivoltaics project. That cohort, which launched in July 2024, brought together communities from across the country to learn about agrivoltaics best practices in a collaborative environment.