Since 1874, the Riggs community has been farming in Urbana. However, his parents were forced to work second jobs to protect themselves from the agricultural sector’s burgeoning corn and grain industry.
Riggs immediately realized that if he wanted to keep the land, he would also need to find another source of income. He anticipates losing$ 200 to$ 300 per acre of corn this year, but his family farm is still running thanks to a craft brewery they founded.
Riggs has come to the realization that the property on which his family has spent 150 years has a potential for solar panels. It’s level, well-drained and gets plenty of sunshine.
As Illinois strives to convert 40 % of its energy consumption to renewables by 2030 and 100 % by 2050, solar installations are expected to increase by 1, 700 % over the next five years, according to the , Solar Energy Industries Association.
Across the country, approximately 83 % of new solar projects developed by 2040 will be installed on farm and ranch land, according to a , 2022 American Farmland Trust analysis.
But, large, low-lying solar panels are not intrinsically compatible with gardening. They usually omit land from agricultural production. This does n’t have to be the case, however. A new field called agrivoltaics suggests that smaller, shade-tolerant plants can flourish in the little panels ‘ areas.
Riggs began considering using solar panel to stabilize the balance sheet of his farm after installing them at his factory and testing their dependability.
” The sun is going to come up on ordinary a certain amount of time so you can create a truly stable, predictable economic concept, which I looked at having grown up on a plantation and was like ‘ Wow, that’s amazing,'” said Riggs.
Some Google queries led him to agrivoltaics.
Although there are n’t many agrivoltaic projects in Illinois, small studies and early research have shown links between solar energy and agriculture. The combination of solar panels and agriculture had support farmers ‘ businesses, boost the state of the environment, serve the nation, and generate clean energy.
Learning to speak the same language
Agrivoltaics is a collaboration between two groups who do n’t always see the land in the same light. At a current producer conference, this was displayed.
” He became fluent and then speaks nature as well as technology”, said Will Harris, a farmer from south Georgia, of a designer he partnered with to eat animal beneath solar panel.
Riggs claimed that a designer he had spoken with next year would n’t grant him the first correct of refusal on strategies for vegetation mowing and trimming, which sparked a roar of laughter and coffs during the conference.
Riggs claimed that he gave up speaking with the business because he was apprehensive about somebody suggesting they knew what was best for his mother’s property.
” You could give me a trillion dollars per time,” he said. There’s no situation where me or my family would feel secure signing the contract”, he said.
He is one of the few farmers in Illinois who also owns his farm and is looking for a developer. But, many farmers do n’t have this luxury.
Owners who frequently reside in cities or other states rent about 70 % of Illinois ‘ farm. Owners find it difficult to decline offers from thermal developers who have decades-old contracts that pay double or triple the rate per hectare. Can’t contend with a producer whose annual income is impacted by market demand fluctuations.
However, if farmers and solar companies can come to terms with one another, Riggs ‘ growing crop of farmers see solar energy as a potential safety net. They could also generate passive income from the solar company’s leases while maintaining product development.
Prospects and challenges
A sheep overlaid on solar panel serves as the indicative of the job that must still be done for agrivoltaics to become popular in Illinois at the Solar Farm Summit held in Chicago.
Animal and solar panels pair nicely together. The sheep do a great job keeping the plants reduced thanks to the panel ‘ shade. But, there are n’t many sheep farmers in Illinois, and there is n’t a large appetite for lamb products in the United States.
Despite this July summit’s debut, promoters claim that register increased by more than 50 % compared to the previous year’s annual one.
On a 54-acre house called Solar Farm 2.0 in Champaign, University of Illinois scientists are exploring how column plants, which monopolize Illinois ‘ agricultural productivity, may live alongside solar panel.
Their preliminary research suggests corn, which needs lots of sun and grows high, wo n’t do well among solar arrays. But, shorter, more shade-tolerant crops such as soybeans, wheat, barley and hay may grow well in the small spaces between panels. Agrivoltaic farms in other states, like Arizona and Massachusetts, are seeing promising yields for specialty groups like tomatoes, basil, and berries.
The American Farmland Trust and solar developer Sol Systems have collaborated in Saline County, which is located 165 miles south of Solar Farm 2.0, to investigate whether kernza, an organic wheat that promotes soil health, can grow well alongside solar panels in Illinois. However, as with sheep, there is n’t a large demand for kernza among American consumers.
Environmentalists have long questioned whether Illinois ought to start growing corn and soybeans in large quantities. They’re water-intensive, primarily used for biofuels and livestock feed rather than human consumption, and monocropping has degraded soil health, according to a , study  , published by the National Academy of Sciences.
” You have food deserts all over the Midwest, where farmers markets are the only way to get fresh produce there. Can we rebuild a particular crop supply at a scale?” posed Ethan Winter, director of the American Farmland Trust’s Smart Solar division. The 12-person team’s exploration of the link between agriculture and solar energy only began three years ago. This is new territory.
Farmers in Illinois could benefit from the passive income from solar arrays to help them diversify their crops.
” It wo n’t produce a sizable profit year one if we nurture and grow this thing.” As we start growing these exotic crops that are native to central Illinois, Riggs warned that” we might fall on our faces” and is interested in trying out more direct-to-consumer options like berries and flowers. Agrivoltaics can reduce that risk until we become proficient in it, according to the genius.
Agrivoltaics are also being promoted as a means of increasing farming’s resilience to climate change. As the weather gets worse, the solar panels could protect crops from wind and rain.
” As the climate changes, where we may have extreme heat and extreme precipitation, it may actually benefit plants to have some shade. So, it’s also very forward-looking research”, said Madhu Khanna, director of the University of Illinois research project.
Slowly warming up to solar
Many Illinois farmers are on the defensive as they watch utility-scale, non-agrivoltaic solar projects pop up next to their fields.
Last year, Illinois passed a , zoning law , that made any land approved for agricultural or industrial use also eligible for solar installations.
Farmers have already had to adapt to an influx of windmills and , raised concerns , about carbon sequestration in recent years.
” It just seems like people are wanting to start a war right here in central Illinois over all of this green energy stuff”, said Shane Gray, a first-generation farmer in Waverly, Illinois, whose farm is next to Double Black Diamond. At 4, 100 acres, it’s the largest solar project east of the Mississippi and is expected to offset 70 % of the electricity from the city of Chicago’s municipal operations.
The land was chosen because it’s near a transmission line, said Matt Birchby, president and co-founder of the project developer, Swift Current Energy. Nothing will be grown on this site, which is about the size of 11 family farms, despite the fact that he stated the company is open to incorporating agrivoltaics into future plans.
According to Alan Bailey, the American Farmland Trust representative for the Midwest, “if you’re a landowner within a certain radius of a transmission line, you’re either getting a letter in the mail or a knock on the door.”
The Illinois Farm Bureau, which represents 3 of every 4 farmers in the state, is against putting solar projects on productive farmland. It , advocates , for placing them on abandoned brownfield sites, vacant lots and rooftops instead.
However, projects on brownfields and former landfills are typically smaller and more expensive due to the cost of land restoration, according to Anna Toenjes, associate vice president of impact at Sol Systems, an Illinois solar company, who is experimenting with agrivoltaics.
Toenjes said that having the freedom to develop projects on a variety of types of land is essential to achieving the scale required to accomplish the goals set at the federal and state levels.
According to the analysis from the American Farmland Trust, solar panels are only expected to cover 1 % of the country’s total farmland. Historically, towns and cities were built next to the richest farmland. Transmission lines, which solar arrays must connect to, were subsequently built next to these highly populated areas, said the organization’s President and CEO John Piotti.
However, agrivoltaics is slowly catching on in rural Illinois. Earlier this month, Riggs ‘ county Farm Bureau sent his proposal to modify the organization’s hardline stance against solar development to the state-level resolution committee. If approved, the Illinois Farm Bureau would support public funding for agrivoltaic projects.
The pace will be determined by policy.
Ultimately, state and federal policy will set the pace of progress for agrivoltaics.
Lightstar Renewables, a Boston-based solar developer, applied last month to construct Illinois ‘ largest commercial agrivoltaic project in Kane County.
The fate of the 4.95 megawatt, 36-acre project, which is anticipated to provide enough energy to power 1, 100 homes annually and grow hay and soybeans, is in the hands of the state government.
A local farmer collaborated with the company to create an array of plants he could grow beneath and between, and the project was successfully pushed through the county’s permitting process after finding an interested landowner close to a transmission line.
Illinois Shines, a state-run solar incentive program that can cover up to 40 % of a solar system’s cost, is currently waiting for Lightstar’s acceptance.
The program receives more applications than grid capacity, even after being allocated more megawatts under the Pritzker administration’s 2021 , Climate and Equitable Jobs Act.
Due to the time and resources constraints with Illinois Shines, development manager at Lightstar, Cecelia Stephens predicted that it would take some time to actually build and start operating.
Although it’s optimistic that this year’s Kane County project will be approved, the business intends to apply again in 2025.
Although Illinois Shines is typically regarded as a national model for how states can support solar development, Stephens said there might be room for improvement.
Applications are evaluated with a , points-based system. Currently, agrivoltaics only receives one point. In contrast, brownfield-style projects are awarded two points while projects built on rooftops are only awarded three.
I believe that if the Illinois Shines program could promote or prioritize agricultural projects more, it would really help us advance more quickly, Stephens said.
She cited New York as an example of a state that had truly stepped up their game. It just announced a , grant program , that will award up to$ 750, 000 to agrivoltaic projects.
Riggs would like to see the points-based system of Illinois Shines expanded to include projects that will generate the most agricultural jobs and produce the highest agricultural output.
He feels compelled to work on agrivoltaic projects because solar farm leases typically run for two to four decades.
” Every day we do n’t have a tiered incentive structure to incentivize real, robust dual-use, there’s another project going in that’s going to be there for 25 years, and it’s a missed opportunity”, he said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy have funded agrivoltaic research with tens of millions of dollars. Solar Farm 2.0 is funded under a$ 10 million USDA grant.
Congress supports further research into agrivoltaics with bipartisan support. The agriculture department is directed to examine the effects and best practices of” shared solar energy and agricultural production” by House Republicans in May. Additionally, it prohibits solar projects on prime farmland from being funded by the agriculture department unless they incorporate agrivoltaics or receive local government approval.
Agrivoltatics are a significant cause of the need for a new Farm Bill every five years, according to Samantha Levy, manager of American Farmland Trust’s policy for conservation and climate change.
Since agrivoltaics was only just starting to be discussed in 2018, the last Farm Bill, which ended its five-year term last year, did not mention it. After failing to come to a consensus, a divided Congress opted to extend the 2018 Farm Bill until this September.
According to history, the 2018 bill will likely remain in session until after the November presidential election, which will likely prolong the session.
Riggs worries that family farmers will lose out on the chance to participate in the clean energy transition and maintain their cherished livelihoods as a result of these federal delays and state-level backlogs.
” If a project has real agricultural dual-use and was partnered with a small family farm, it’s the golden ticket for that family”, said Riggs. Every one of these small, low-cost solar projects could literately provide for the next generation of farmers.
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