New Agrivoltaic Tool Optimizes Solar Generation And Crop Production

There he goes again. The thin-skinned dictator-adjacent Commander-in-Chief who occupies the Oval Office foisted disaster upon US farmers when he sparked trade wars during his first term in office, and now the American electorate has empowered him to do it all over again. Meanwhile, farmers elsewhere around the globe are ready to pounce on markets abandoned by the US, including with the help of new agrivoltaic systems that produce both clean energy and crops on the same land.

Pro tip: Next time, don’t vote for the convicted felon.

Trade Wars And The Agrivoltaic Solution

President Trump’s first round of trade wars worked out famously for US farmers, and not in a good way. They landed on the losing end of the stick in 2018 when China retaliated against Trump’s new tariffs. The Council on Foreign Relations was among those toting up the damages. By October of 2020, CFR calculated that more than 92% of the tax revenue from the new tariffs went to bail out farmers who suffered loss of export markets due to the trade war.

“That trade war has cost U.S. companies many billions in new import taxes (while undermining their competitiveness and increasing consumer prices), yet it has earned the government far less,” CFR summarized, noting that Trump’s payments to farmers totaled $61 billion — yes, billion — by 2020.

This time around, Trump is shaping up to be an even worse disaster for farmers. Aside from the impact of retaliatory tariffs, Trump’s belligerence has motivated non-government boycotts of US foodstuffs to materialize in Canada, for example.

Trump’s reckless budget-cutting spree is another factor. US food producers depending on sales to USAID food assistance programs have already been battered by steep cuts to the agency.

The Trump freeze on federal disbursements is yet another financial catastrophe in the making. Farmers who contracted for on-site solar projects through the Agriculture Department’s REAP loan and grant program are left holding the bag for thousands of dollars invested up front.

None of this bodes well for the up-and-coming agrivoltaic movement in the US. Agrivoltaic systems represent a next-level approach to farmland use, in which solar panels can be deployed strategically to generate electricity while the farmer continues to use the land for pollinator habitats, grazing, and other agricultural activities. The science behind solar-plus-farming is relatively new, but momentum was beginning to take hold during the Biden administration when … oops … oh, well….

Europe Takes The Lead On Agrivoltaics

Europe has already been implementing agrivoltaic practices at a faster pace than the US, and Trump’s reckless budget cuts all but guarantee the US will be left behind in the dust for years to come. That’s because European governments continue to invest in agrivoltaic research projects that maximize yields and profits from dual-use farming.

One key challenge involves enabling farmers to calculate how the revenue from electricity generation can offset the loss of farming space needed for the solar panels. In addition, although the emerging consensus is that solar panels do not interfere with grassland productivity, they do compete for sunlight with other crops, so productivity also has to be factored into the equation.

A research team from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems has come up with a new calculating tool. The project focuses on apple orchards, with an eye on helping Germany achieve its renewable energy goals while optimizing apple production.

The focus on apples is particularly instructive because apples require different levels of light for optimal results throughout the growing season, from buds to blossom and fruition. The researchers also determined that Germany’s longtime experience in deploying hail-proof nets to protect apple orchards could help inform their research.

Calculating The Balance Between Crops And Solar Energy

The researchers credit an idea in circulation since 2011 with forming the basis of their approach, which identifies horizontal single-axis tracking systems as the most flexible means of adjusting light management throughout the growing season. They also note that a number of commercial firms already have such systems up and running in Europe,

The technical details are available online at the SPIE digital library under the title, “Enhancing agrivoltaic synergies through optimized tracking strategies.” In a nutshell, the researchers confirm that “horizontal single-axis tracker agrivoltaic systems can mitigate agricultural yield losses through optimized tracking strategies that balance light distribution between crops and solar panels.”

The authors also take note of some limitations and challenges in their work. However, the study does provide agrivoltaic advocates with additional evidence that crops and solar panels can co-exist profitably. Their study showed that dynamic solar panel tracking could achieve 91% of the targeted light for growing apples over the course of a year, with just a 20% loss in yield for the solar panels.

Agrivoltaic Systems And The Tariff Wars Of The Future

In addition to raw productivity, the study authors also indicate that an optimized agrivoltaic system can be tweaked to improve the quality of crops. They observe that “light quality, intensity, and duration profoundly affect a number of agronomic traits, including fruit ripening, coloration, and overall quality, which in turn influence marketability and consumer preferences.”

That’s a particularly key consideration in Germany, where apples are an export crop that accounts for about 70% of all fruit grown domestically. As a side note, Germany is so awash in apple peels that researchers are exploring ways to repurpose them for energy storage systems and other cleantech.

The US Apple Association (USAA), for one, was already concerned about trade war impacts after Trump concluded his first term in office. During the Biden administration, the organization cited “retaliatory tariffs, the lack of new trade agreements and a strong dollar” among the factors cutting US apple exports by 25% since 2018. USAA drew particular attention to the loss of new markets in India and China as a result of Trump’s trade wars.

Access to the European market, USAA pointed out, has also been restricted partly on account of Europe’s pesticide policies. At the time, the organization urged Congress to increase funding for the USDA’s Market Access Program, a matching grant program aimed at promoting US apples overseas.

No word yet on whether or not USDA will have the funds, or the staff, to help US farmers survive the new trade wars, non-government boycotts, the loss of USAID revenue, and the financial complications arising from the Trump freeze on USDA disbursements for solar projects.

An agrivoltaic boost could help. Trump took the US government itself out of the running, but all is not lost. Keep an eye out for state-based research projects aimed at helping farmers deploy solar power to stay in business. Over in New York, for example, researchers are exploring how solar panels could be deployed instead of hail nets to protect a high-density apple orchard where young dwarf trees have been planted.

Image: The agrivoltaic movement in the US has lost momentum under the Trump administration, but other countries continue to pursue the dual-use track for profitable, productive farming (courtesy of NREL).