Giving Solar Energy the Green Light: How Agrivoltaics Presents New Development Opportunities
Article Summary
Solar energy is rapidly expanding in the U.S., with agrivoltaics offering a promising way to combine solar power generation and agriculture on the same land. This approach supports renewable energy growth while maintaining productive farmland and increasing public approval.
Key Takeaways
- The agrivoltaics market in the U.S. includes nearly 700 installations covering 85,000 acres and producing around 14 gigawatts of power.
- Crops and native plants thrive under and between solar panels, creating habitats for pollinators and enabling dual land use for energy and agriculture.
- Agrivoltaics benefits include improved solar panel efficiency through cooler temperatures, reduced vegetation management costs with grazing animals like sheep, and potential financial incentives for developers and farmers.
Solar energy is the fastest-growing source of power in the U.S.1, and it’s easy to understand why. New solar sites are among the most cost-competitive forms of generation to install while also being among the quickest to build2, and their lack of emissions is a boon for the environment.
With solar construction on the upswing due to rising electricity demand across America, finding available land becomes an increasingly complex proposition. As developers seek out new solar sites, local leaders and landowners must balance setting aside space to expand renewable energy capacity with other land-use possibilities, including preserving or increasing farm acreage.
This balancing act is one reason farmers and solar developers are collaborating in more places. Agrivoltaics is the practice of co-locating solar energy development and agriculture, with crops, native plant species and grazing animals under and between solar panels.
Agrivoltaics also increases the chances that solar projects will get built. The Solar and Storage Industries Institute (SI2) found that 70% of farmers are open to solar on their land, provided their farms remain productive3. And a 2025 study published in Land Use Policy4 showed that large-scale agrivoltaics projects receive less public opposition than large-scale solar projects in open spaces.
What does the agrivoltaics market look like today?
Agrivoltaics, or agrisolar as it’s sometimes called, is a fairly new concept, which means that data on the subject is still in its infancy.
By one estimate, there are nearly 700 agrivoltaics installations located across the U.S. today, which cover roughly 85,000 acres and produce around 14 gigawatts of power5.
Many of these facilities are smaller, such as those located at university research sites. However, there are also a number of utility-scale solar plants that incorporate agrivoltaics, with the largest documented site coming in at more than 750 megawatts. Mortenson projects, including the 209-megawatt Markum Solar Farm in Texas and the 138-megawatt Arlington II Solar project in Georgia, are also good examples of agrivoltaics in action at a utility scale.
This market is on an upward trajectory as well. In 2020, agrivoltaics sites covered about 27,000 acres and produced 4.5 gigawatts of power. Within four years, both of those figures more than doubled6, and they are expected to keep rising at a fast pace as overall solar energy development continues to increase.
How does agrivoltaics work?
Because solar energy sites are often large, open areas that receive ample sunlight, they pair well with agricultural activities in several different ways.
Crops that prefer heavy sunlight can go between rows, or around the perimeter of the arrays, while plants that like partial shade and cooler conditions may thrive under solar panels. Native grasses and vegetation can also excel in these conditions, and that in turn creates a healthy habitat for pollinator insects.
Among grazing animals, sheep are the most common creatures used in agrivoltaics. Sheep forage on vegetation around solar panels, and on hotter days, they use the shade under solar arrays to keep cool.
What are the possible benefits of agrivoltaics for solar developers?
Beyond the positive agricultural impacts, agrivoltaics also offers benefits to solar developers. For starters, having crops and native grass under solar panels can help keep the panels cooler, which boosts their efficiency when it comes to converting sunlight into electricity. Sites that have grazing animals can also cut down on the costs and labor associated with mowing vegetation as it gets taller7.
In addition, there may be federal, state or local financial incentives and tax credits available to both solar energy developers and farmers, depending on a project’s location and scope.
As the solar energy industry continues to evolve and grow, agrivoltaics offers a way for new projects to work in harmony with the land while producing critical clean power.
[1] SEIA: U.S. Adds 43 GW of New Solar Capacity in 2025, Marking Fifth Straight Year as Top Source of New Power
[2] Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy+ (LCOE+)
[3] Solar and Storage Industries Institute FARMS Project
[4] Science Direct: Agrivoltaics increases public acceptance of solar energy production on agricultural land
[5] Open EI: Agrivoltaics Map
[6] National Laboratory of the Rockies: Lighting the Way for Agrivoltaics: How NREL Empowers Communities To Capture the Benefits of Solar Energy, Agriculture, and Ecosystems
[7] Kleinman Center for Energy Policy: The Use and Potential of Agrivoltaics in the United States