Farmers pair crops and grazing sheep with solar panels

The brief

Context

Agrivoltaics is the practice of growing crops or grazing livestock on the same land that hosts solar panels. Conceived in a 1981 German paper titled "Kartoffeln unter dem Kollektor" ("Potatoes beneath the collector"), it saw its first pilot project only in 2004 in land-constrained Japan. It is now spreading — sheep graze on roughly one in 10 American solar farms — as a way to defuse the conflict between farmland protection and solar expansion. But it remains tiny in scale and does not work equally well in all climates.

Key facts

• Sheep graze under panels on about one in 10 American solar farms, according to the source.
• Agrivoltaics accounted for just 18.4 gigawatts worldwide as of mid-2025 — less than 1% of global solar capacity.
• If agrivoltaics were deployed on just 1% of available agricultural land in Europe, the continent could exceed its 2030 solar energy targets.
• The concept dates to a 1981 article by two German scientists, "Kartoffeln unter dem Kollektor" ("Potatoes beneath the collector"); the first pilot began in 2004 in Japan.
• Three main types: horizontal (panels facing the sky), vertical (perpendicular rows) and integrated (often atop greenhouses).
• In America's arid West, yields stayed the same or rose under panels; in the humid Midwest, shading limited photosynthesis and cut maize and soybean yields.
• A survey found more than 80% of Americans would be more likely to support local solar development if it allowed co-production of energy and agriculture — about 10% more than general support for solar.
• Cooler panels produce more electricity per watt of sunlight; transpiring plants beneath panels cool the land surface better than concrete, says Carl Bernacchi of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Timeline

1. 1981Two German scientists publish "Kartoffeln unter dem Kollektor" ("Potatoes beneath the collector"), originating the agrivoltaics idea.
2. 2004The first agrivoltaics pilot project begins in Japan, a land-constrained country worried about balancing solar deployment with farmland protection.
3. Mid-2025Global agrivoltaics capacity stands at 18.4 GW, under 1% of world solar capacity.

Who has a stake

• Farmers growing shade-tolerant crops — Panels can shade crops, retain moisture and boost yields, plus offer a second income stream as insurance against extreme weather.
• Cash-crop growers in the humid US Midwest — Shading reduced maize and soybean yields; with thin profit margins even a minor yield drop makes adoption unviable.
• US sheep industry — Kinzer says graziers are now paid to graze instead of paying to lease land — a paradigm shift for an industry struggling since World War II.
• Solar developers and energy companies — Cooler, planted land raises panel efficiency, but mounting panels higher adds steel and labour costs.
• Farming associations and rural communities — Some have protested farmland being converted into solar acreage, saying members stop being farmers and become energy producers.
• Researchers (Carl Bernacchi, Austin Kinzer of American Farmland Trust, PNAS authors) — Documenting where agrivoltaics works, the climate co-benefits and the barriers to uptake.

Why it matters

Agrivoltaics sits at the rare intersection of climate mitigation (cutting emissions through solar power) and adaptation (shielding crops from heat and water stress), while easing the land-use conflict between food production and renewable energy. For countries where farmland is scarce and solar targets are rising, it offers a way to use the same acre twice and give farmers a second, weather-proof income. But with under 1% of global solar capacity so far and yield losses in humid regions, its promise is still largely untested at scale.