SARAH BOWMAN Indianapolis Star BRITNEY J. MILLERGazette JOSHUA ROSENBERG Lenses
WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana. Acres of corn on both sides of a narrow country road in northwest Indiana. The end of August, and the wheat is nibbling, its golden crown, intertwined with dewdrops, glittering in the summer morning sun. Then another glow appears on the horizon, a brighter glow.
Corn sprouts like a super crop, four rows of 20-meter solar panels rise above the stalks growing below. Corn and panels collect the sun.
"They're still storing solar energy," said Mitch Tuinstra, professor of plant breeding and genetics at Purdue University. "One stores them as electrons, and the other stores them in plants."
Tuinstra is one of several Purdue University professors and graduate students studying solar panels in the university's research area, just a few miles from campus.
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Agricultural land is useful for solar energy of all kinds for the same reasons it is for growing crops: they tend to be flat, well-drained, and receive plenty of sunlight. What sets these Purdue research teams apart is that they don't rule out farmland — they're built on corn itself.
This is a practice known as "agrovoltaics" or "agrosolar", in which active agriculture and solar power take place in the same place rather than separately. This approach has many complexities that researchers are still trying to solve, but they see huge benefits in trying to improve on best practices.
The researchers say farmers who want to rent out their land to use solar energy as an additional source of income will see even more economic benefit if that land remains in production, and some agro-electric approaches may even help the crops themselves.
“We want to see if we can create systems that minimize yield losses while maximizing their yields,” Tuinstra said.
In addition, he says, the researchers want to see how the co-location strategy could be a means of combating the growing tension between solar energy and agriculture in the Corn Belt, where residents and cities are pushing what they see as industrialization in rural areas.
Solar potential on the farm
The stakes behind these efforts are high: solar energy plays a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from fossil fuel power plants, which are causing an increasing number of the deadly effects of climate change.
The US Energy Information Administration estimates that by 2050, when the Paris Climate Agreement stipulates that the world must achieve zero carbon emissions to avoid another climate catastrophe, solar power generation will account for 20% of the net electricity generation in the United States, compared to all only 3% in 2020 the Biden administration is investing to make this happen, including billions under the Solar Inflation Reduction Act and investment tax credits.
But the panels cannot be concentrated in one region, such as the desert in the southwest, due to the high costs of transmitting electricity elsewhere. Instead, Tuinstra said building local renewable energy will help businesses and consumers reap the benefits closer to home.
A 2021 Department of Energy report concluded that by 2050, solar projects will need land equivalent to 0.5% of the United States to help meet climate change targets. In comparison, farms make up about 40% of all land in the United States. However, that 0.5% of land in the United States represents nearly 9.5 million acres, or almost all of the corn and soybeans planted in Indiana alone.
In the Corn Belt, most of the land that can be used for solar energy is occupied by cultivated fields. For some people in these areas, the sun is a terror and a threat to crops and crops.
In late August, corn surrounding the Palo Community Center in Palo, Iowa, was over 20 feet tall as harvest season approached. But this year, something else was growing nearby: billboards with a red X on them that said "industrial solar energy."
At the center of the community, residents waited to hear about the fate of a proposed 200 megawatt solar plant — a traditional neo-agro-electric facility — to be placed on farmland near the city. Some participants supported the project; many condemned it, most citing objections to the dismantling of farmland. The projects were approved the following week.
When several participants were asked if placing solar panels on active farmland was an acceptable compromise, many were skeptical.
Robert Little, a 74-year-old electrician who claimed to have worked on farms all his life, said agro-electricity could threaten production.
“Old family traditions are the biggest concern,” Little said. "And the other conflict is that I don't think it will ever work."
Communities and counties in the Midwest are saying no to solar power, like Indiana, where nearly a third of counties have ordinances restricting or even banning renewable energy projects. This skepticism is one of the main reasons why researchers consider agrovoltaics to be a viable approach.
But there are unresolved problems, such as shadows from solar panels. Tuinstra of her team at Purdue is looking into this, hoping to model optimal row spacing and develop technology that won't let excessive shading interfere with crop production.
Building agri-power plants in cold conditions can also be beneficial for the panels and plants below, Bowman says.
In the southwest and northeast, a federal program plans to use solar energy in conjunction with specialty crops such as lettuce, tomatoes and berries. These small plants are better suited to an agroelectric environment because they benefit from shade and require less equipment.
But in the Midwest, the acreage under corn and soybeans far exceeds the acreage under specialty crops, and more sun and more equipment are needed to plant and harvest. Therefore, some research is also looking into how to produce different types of seeds and crops that are best suited for growing in the sun.
The pollsters on the Purdue team are also looking into public concerns about agrovoltaics and ways to communicate them to farmers with facts, Tuinstra said. And solar companies are taking action, seeking advice on developing a system that can be customized for planting and harvesting.
But trying to optimize both performance and technology puts researchers and developers in a bad cycle: It takes years of testing that they work to get project funding and lower development costs. But to create these proofs of concept, you need money and availability.
"It's a Catch-22," said Andrew Poor, CEO of Midwest Agrivoltaic Systems. “I am always looking for funding.
Poor's is exploring cost-effective ways to create taller, wider solar panel racks that can accommodate higher performance and larger equipment. It is running small agri-electric projects with partners willing to pay the cost of inputs, hoping to increase production as data comes in.
But it is difficult to attract development partners in an untested area.
“They seem to be as careful as the farmers when it comes to signing up for a project,” said Tyler Lloyd, director of solar operations at Midwest Agrivoltaic Systems.
However, not all farmers are against it. Those involved in a combination of agricultural and livestock production were more open to the idea of agrovoltaics, Bowman says. This technology may also affect young farmers who are less attached to traditional crop and harvest tactics.
“The trend has been to buy this great piece of equipment, farm many acres, and grow quickly at the right time for maximum yield,” he said, “so to see the spread of solar energy in conventional farmland,” you can do it in different conditions. By the way, we need a different mentality.”
This article is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Agriculture and Water Division, an independent publishing network based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in partnership with Report For America and funded by the Walton Family Foundation.
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