Comments on: Crop and Energy Production Merge in Iowa Project

By: Corey T

Corey T — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 17:15:20 +0000

This quote isn’t true:
“The project is the first of its kind. ‘There has been research conducted, but not on a utility scale,’ says Nick Peterson, Strategic Partnerships Manager with Alliant Energy, ‘and not in a public/private partnership with a land grant university.’ There has also been little research conducted in the Midwest, the heart of agriculture, where farmland is gold.”
There’s already been peer-reviewed and patent-pending technology for this problem from Purdue. (https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2023/Q2/purdue-agrivoltaic-farming-structures-and-software-harvest-solar-power-at-lower-cost-and-with-minimal-impact-on-crop-yield.html)

By: Chris Pfohl

Chris Pfohl — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 16:29:02 +0000

In reply to Sally G.. Sally, Do you happen to know how much that loss amounts to? How does it compare with losses associated with local micro systems and their inverter systems? It would be interesting to see comparison ROI between agrivoltaic and comparable distributed rooftop systems.

By: Sally G.

Sally G. — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 20:49:09 +0000

This is interesting; I am wondering if the solar projects need to be utility scale? I envision more distributed generation, without the loss of transmission that automatically comes with centralized power plants.
It is good to see alternatives to monoculture, which has so degraded our soils over decades of a single crop being planted. I look forward to reading about the results of this project.

By: Mike N.

Mike N. — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 11:00:07 +0000

There seems to be a lot of hostility to utility scale solar in Iowa right now. A large solar project near Palo IA has become a lightning rod for the anti solar crowd. Meanwhile suburban sprawl metastasizes from around urban areas swallowing up vastly more farmland, yet there seems to be little outcry over that.
I do agree that any solar project put on decent farmland should at a minimum integrate some form of agrovoltaics, even if it is to simply graze sheep, in order to most efficiently use the land.
Agrovoltaics in hot areas like the SW US have seen pretty significant gains in productivity from partial shading and the more efficient use of water. It will be interesting to see if the advantages hold up in the less hot, rainier climate of they Midwest.