Anne Prince’s Post

"Ohio’s largest solar farm will also be the US’s largest #agrivoltaics project". Agrivoltaics, also known as solar sharing or solar farming, is a practice that involves co-locating solar photovoltaic panels with agricultural crops or grazing livestock on the same area of land. Essentially, it's the integration of agriculture and solar energy production on the same land, allowing for dual land use and potentially increased land productivity. #SolarPower

🌱☀️Exciting news in the world of renewable energy and sustainable agriculture! A groundbreaking utility-scale agrivoltaic installation is now operational in Ohio. Here are the key takeaways: • The Madison Fields Solar Project, developed by Savion, is a 180 MW solar power plant in Madison County, Ohio. • It's one of the first operating utility-scale solar sites to intentionally integrate crop production within the array, including soybeans, alfalfa, and forage crops. • The project will produce enough energy to power approximately 38,000 Ohio homes annually and contribute $1.62 million in local taxes each year. This innovative project demonstrates the potential for combining solar energy generation with agricultural production, maximizing land use and creating multiple benefits for local communities. It's a significant step forward in the development of sustainable energy solutions that work in harmony with existing land uses. #RenewableEnergy #Agrivoltaics #SustainableAgriculture #SolarPower

Did you hear about the new #AB renewable policy that puts farming first? It is great seeing action to "ensures native grasslands, irrigable and productive lands continue to be available for agricultural production." Learn more in Western Producer Media: https://lnkd.in/gR3x_jAv

AKVA Group and Inseanergy eye floating solar energy for Chilean aquaculture Producer of equipment for the farming industry, AKVA Group, has established a partnership with Norwegian floating solar company Inseanergy to use floating #solarenergy to operate #fishfarming operations in Chile. According to AKVA group, the partnership focuses on the shift from fossil fuels to solar energy, decreasing fossil fuel consumption. This signifies a commitment to environmental responsibility and creates opportunities in locations previously considered challenging due to reliance on gas tanks or diesel, reducing the fossil footprint. “This is good for the environment and aligns perfectly with the industry’s shift towards sustainability. Chile’s solar energy potential is particularly promising for the aquaculture industry, and we are excited to explore this further,” said Christian Gerardo Schäfer Oyanedel, General Manager of AKVA group Chile. By partnering with Inseanergy and Kvernaland Energi, the AKVA group embraces low-emission and deep-farming technologies. The initiative is said to focus on precision farming with minimal emissions, utilizing advanced hybrid battery systems, solar power plants, software, and control systems tailored for sustainable aquaculture. “Sustainability is part of AKVA group’s culture and DNA. It is part of the solutions and products we sell and buy, as well as a driving force behind innovation. The goal is to achieve better cost-effective and sustainable operations,” said Alejandro Schafer Oyanedel. “This is a system of floating solar energy production that generates 100 % emission-free green energy. The solar power plant will work as a “floating generator” being able to produce as much as 290 pKwh. In combination with a battery pack and water feeding, we can reduce the running time of the diesel generator by up to 90 % on a typical fish farm.” https://lnkd.in/exQxgqyG #aquaculture #energy

WHA Utilities and Power Public Company Limited (WHAUP) has announced a major collaboration towards advancing #cleanenergy in Thailand's #agricultural sector with their new #solarpower project. Here's a breakdown of the key aspects and potential impacts of this collaboration: Project Overview Partnership: WHA Utilities and WHAUP is collaborating with S.P.M. Animal Feed Co., Ltd. and A.P.M. Agro Co., Ltd. These companies are prominent players in Thailand’s animal feed and livestock industries. Capacity: The project will have a total capacity of 9 megawatts (MW) of solar power. Commencement: The project is expected to start supplying electricity by 2025. https://lnkd.in/g3NGtpA3

A significant proportion of farmers are contemplating the installation of photovoltaic systems on their land, or are in favour of such installations. It is a prerequisite that the land in question can continue to be used for agricultural purposes. This is the outcome of a recent survey of farmers conducted by the DLG as part of the Agri-PV Practice Monitor. In this survey, 125 farmers were asked to indicate their level of interest in new technologies and development opportunities. The majority of the interviewed farms were full-time businesses with an average size of 100 to 200 hectares of agricultural land. Notably, three-quarters of the interviewed businesses already had a photovoltaic system in place, indicating a high level of familiarity with solar power generation. #Farming #Solar #PV #Biodiversity

Reliable and sustainable electricity is a necessity that many Kansas farmers need for their daily operations. Learn more about why farmers are migrating to solar energy solutions. #solarenergy #farming #farmers #agriculture #energysolutions

1.8-meter-high steel structures underneath the solar panels are good enough to accommodate sleep grazing. Adding the extra costs of tightening up/hiding all the cables, the total installation/structure costs are probably just 20% higher than the standard design, and this is equivalent to a 6-8% increase in total EPC costs for a solar farm. I have seen kangaroos roaming freely under a solar farm with a 1.60m under-panel clearance for weeks without causing any electrical issues. I also understand that weeding costs could be around $5k per MW /year. And for solar farms with less than 1m clearance, it would become extremely hard to weed without a robotic machine. In conclusion, it should be economically feasible to develop Argrivoltaic projects in Australia. This should form part of the renewable industry's social license.

#SolarPower #WindPower #Agriculture #USA #KarenMaguire #SophiaTanner #JustinWinikoff #USDA "Solar and wind farms occupy a sliver of rural land — an estimated 424,000 acres in 2020 — but the large majority of renewable energy projects installed in recent years are located on agricultural land. USDA researchers, who looked at land cover three years before and three years after construction of energy projects, found that cropland or pasture-rangeland usually stayed in the same land cover even after the addition of solar or wind development. “Most agricultural lands surrounding solar farms and wind turbines remained in agriculture during the period studied, although land cover change was more common after solar farm development than after wind turbine development,” said three economists in USDA’s digital magazine Amber Waves. Land cover changed on one-fifth of solar sites and on 4% of wind turbine sites. “The fact that a high share [about 85%] of crop and pasture-rangeland in proximity to solar farms remained in agricultural production may be somewhat unexpected because the land cover under and between solar panels was removed during the construction of a typical solar farm,” wrote economists Karen Maguire, Sophia Tanner, and Justin Winikoff. They noted concerns about land use competition between solar and crop farms. “For wind turbines, the persistence of agricultural land cover after development suggests that wind turbine development was compatible with agricultural production.” ... From 2016-20, large-scale commercial solar capacity in rural areas more than doubled. Solar projects were most common in the West, mid-Atlantic, and Northeast. Wind turbines, “concentrated in ares with consistent, high wind speeds,” were most prominent in the Plains, followed by the Midwest and West, said the researchers. Some 43% of solar projects installed in rural areas from 2012-20 were on cropland. “The Midwest had the highest share of solar installations on cropland [70%],” said Maguire, Tanner, and Winikoff. Installations in the Plains and the West were mostly on pasture and rangelands. In a report earlier this year, the three USDA economists said a significant expansion of solar and wind energy, part of a drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, “will have local landscape effects in rural areas. These projects also have local socioeconomic effects in rural communities, providing benefits such as leasing revenue and tax revenue but also imposing costs such as changes to the local landscape, farmland conversion following solar development, noise and altered views from wind turbines, environmental effects, and potential reductions in property values.”"

#SOLAR #AgPV #Agrivoltaics #BESS #WWS Rutgers University studies co-locating solar energy with crop production The university is working with SolarEdge to study the practices of agrivoltaics, or co-located solar and farming. https://lnkd.in/gQYBd7_a)