Selected articles and studies on agrivoltaic options, benefits, decommissioning, and concerns.
Agrivoltaic Crops and Animals
The 5 C’s of Agrivoltaic Success: Lessons from the InSPIRE Research Study, released by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 2022, examines the Innovative Solar Practices Integrated with Rural Economies and Ecosystems (InSPIRE) project. This project was funded by the US Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) and examined opportunities and trade-offs at over 25 sites across the country that span crop production, pollinator habitat, ecosystem services, and livestock production.
Agrivoltaic Crops and Animals
The Use of Solar Panels for Shade for Holstein Heifers, published in 2023, examines the impacts of Animal Agrivoltaics on the thermal comfort and wellbeing experienced by dairy heifers. The shade provided by the solar panels efficiently relieved the heat load on the heifers, cooled off their body surface and skin temperatures, and decreased the costs of thermoregulation, as indicated by the lower requirement of panting leading to significant potential benefits of thermal comfort for the heifers.
Agrivoltaic Solar Array Benefits
Agrivoltaics provide mutual benefits across the food–energy–water nexus in drylands, published in 2019, found shading by the PV panels provides multiple additive and synergistic benefits, including reduced plant drought stress, greater food production, and reduced PV panel heat stress. Methods included monitoring micro-climatic conditions, PV panel temperature, soil moisture and irrigation water use, plant ecophysiological function and plant biomass production within this ‘agrivoltaics’ ecosystem and in traditional PV installations and agricultural settings to quantify trade-offs.
Agrivoltaic Solar Arrays Do Not Leach Heavy Metals
The Hyperion Solar Array in Massachusetts conducted soil reports after 10 years of installation. Initially installed in 2012, the University of Maine’s soil labs analyzed metal concentrations in soils under the array in 2022. Reports confirmed no statistical difference between concentration of metals in the soil under the agrivoltaics array, as compared to average soil levels for these metals in Massachusetts. At all testing locations, metal concentrations in the soil remained well within acceptable limits, as established by the Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). Moreover, the metal concentrations were at or below the average levels for the state of Massachusetts.
Decommissioning Agrivoltaic Solar Projects
The center for rural affairs published the Decommissioning Solar Energy Systems Resource Guide in 2022, outlining end-of-life options for decommissioning, including reuse, refurbishment, repowering, as well as recycling and disposal. The guide also provides policy planning resources, including decommissioning plan components, estimating costs, and financial assurance mechanisms.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory published the Best Practices at the End of the Photovoltaic System Performance Period, in 2021. The study examines decommissioning options and planning, as well as costs for each option, standards and regulatory considerations, and tax implications of decommissioning. In addition, the paper reports challenges and best practices for decommissioning.
