Agrivoltaic Feasibility in Washington State

Washingtonians value protecting both agricultural and natural lands while also rapidly transitioning to a clean energy economy. The state also has critical obligations to Tribal Nations for safeguarding cultural and natural resources. Rapidly deploying clean energy while preserving Indigenous rights and protecting agriculture and ecosystems from degradation or conversion is a formidable endeavor. One potential contribution to balancing these multiple values is agrivoltaics.

Agrivoltaics is the practice of co-locating solar energy production on farmland in a manner that allows crop or livestock production beneath solar panels or between solar array rows. Through a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, American Farmland Trust, Washington State University and the Spatial Climate Solutions Lab at UC Santa Barbara, we produced a report on the feasibility of agrivoltaics in Washington state.

We took a multipronged approach to our agrivoltaic feasibility assessment.

• First, we synthesized the global body of science to-date on agrivoltaics, interpreting that research within the context of Washington State.
• Second, we mapped how much land might be suitable for agrivoltaics across Washington. 
• Third, we used a modeling approach that merges property-level solar array design with crop growth to assess how we can design agrivoltaic systems for different parts of Washington. This modeling allows us to understand what the consequences (positive, neutral or negative) might be for crop yield and quality, particularly for apples.
• Finally, we surveyed farmers across the state to assess their perceptions of and interest in solar energy in general and agrivoltaics specifically.

For these surveys, we also conducted qualitative interviews with farmers and other interested parties at the agriculture-renewable energy nexus to better understand opportunities and barriers to agrivoltaics deployment. This integrated work provides an initial assessment of the biological, geographic, economic and social potential of agrivoltaics in Washington.