FARMS Project
A two-year study on the technical and financial barriers to deploying large-scale agrivoltaic projects nationwide
Submit Your Agrivoltaics Project for Study
Phase one of our FARMS Project resulted in a survey that captured responses from over 350 farmers, solar developers and utilities. Respondents were asked about their experience with and attitudes towards solar energy projects sited on farmland. These responses help to illuminate the unique challenges facing stakeholders across the agrivoltaics space. Solar + Farms Survey results will be published soon, so stay tuned.
Phase two of our FARMS Project is now underway. For this next phase, the SI2 team is looking for agrivoltaic projects to highlight through in-depth case studies. We are interested in studying sites utilizing dual-use agrivoltaic practices at various stages of development, including those operating, under development/construction, and those that have been cancelled at later stages. These case studies will complement the initial Farms + Solar Survey, helping us to understand how specific challenges manifest in real-world projects.
We need your help! If you work with or know of any agrivoltaic projects that might be a good fit, please click here to fill out our intake form. We look forward to hearing from you!
About
The co-location of solar and agriculture (known as agrivoltaics) has the potential to add value to a farm operation, but many unanswered questions often lead farm operations to abandon the idea of cultivating crops under large-scale solar or solar developers to abandon or rule out crop production or grazing under their projects. As a result, agrivoltaics is not yet widely used.
The Solar and Storage Industries Institute (SI2) has been selected for funding through the Foundational Agrivoltaic Research for Megawatt Scale (FARMS) program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office to execute a 2-year study of the technical and financial barriers to deploying large-scale agrivoltaic projects nationwide.
The “Developing Resources for Deploying Agrivoltaics” Project will survey solar developers, farmers, and representatives from rural electric cooperatives to explore barriers to agrivoltaics and then develop case studies of agrivoltaic projects to understand how barriers have been addressed. A set of reports tailored to specific stakeholder groups will be developed on how stakeholder-specific barriers could be addressed. The project team will also develop templates and model contracts that can help facilitate agrivoltaics deployment.