“State governments, solar developers, farmers, and landowners are recognizing, and more importantly seeing first-hand, the multiple potential benefits that are possible with agrivoltaic projects,” Macknick said. “In some areas this is driven by land constraints, in other areas this is driven more by local perceptions of solar development, and in other regions farm economics are a major contributing factor.”

Legislative efforts on the federal level, as well as in states like Massachusetts and Colorado, “could spark further and more rapid change,” he said.

In May, Colorado enacted a law authorizing the state’s Agricultural Drought and Climate Resilience Office to award grants for new or ongoing research on the use of agrivoltaics. Previous bills to fund agrivoltaics in the state were “primarily sponsored” by Democrats, the Colorado Sun reported in January, but this bill won key support from Republican Sen. Cleave Simpson, who said he became interested in the practice as a result of economic problems he experienced while running his family’s 800-acre alfalfa farm.

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Source: Utility Dive

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