More energy. More food. More water. Agrivoltaics are a pathway towards energy, water and food sustainability. It’s one of the few technologies where, by producing energy, you also reduce water use and increase food production, creating sustainability in all three directions.
Professor Chad Higgins of Oregon State University is one of the most optimistic scientists you’ll meet. His team studied 20 million possible futures for earth, based on energy, water and food production. Only a handful of those scenarios lead to a sustainable future. Agrivoltaics is one of them.
According to Higgins, “The key is adopting sensible ways to do sustainable renewable energy production at scale. We have everything we need. We can save ourselves. And make money doing it. In the US, it will cost 1.2 trillion and pay that back in nine years.” That estimate is based on a 2020 article in Sustainability which Higgins co-authored.
Agrivoltaics means the full integration of farming with solar energy production on the same plot of land at the same time. Successful integration depends on making sure that the solar design does not get in the way of the farming activities. And when fields are fallow, they can still produce income for farmers.
Agrivoltaics increases the efficiency of solar panels, because when panels get too hot, they produce less energy. Agricultural activity under the panels cools the air, which cools the panels, making the panels more efficient.
In a carefully designed Agrivoltaic system, the plants also benefit. Because in most agricultural zones, plants receive more solar energy than they can process. Higgins estimates that 40% of the light that falls on a plant in Oregon, on a typical summer day, is wasted.
“If you keep hitting plants with sun that they can’t process, they have to take action to cool off. Warm plants, to cool off, pump water through themselves. That is water wasted from a growth perspective. It keeps the plant from wilting and dying. But it doesn’t go into plant growth; it goes into survival.”
Higgins combines his background in farming and engineering to design solar arrays that remove only the excess solar energy. Not more. Shade from the solar panels dances over the field in a carefully calculated pattern. Solar panels provide just enough shade to take plants out of a stressed condition. Less stressed plants produce more food and they produce more nutritious food. Higgins’ goal is a symbiotic relationship that increases both food and energy production, while reducing water use.
Higgins emphasizes that well designed agrivoltaic systems do not take agricultural land out of production. In fact, farm yields increase. In field tests, the average increase in agricultural yield is 20 to 40 percent. Higgins’ personal record best was a 98% increase in crop yield, because water that would have gone to cooling the plants off, went to growth.
Crops that work well with solar panels include vegetables, melons, gourds, beans and most grains. Agrivoltaics does not work well with orchard crops, or other tall crops where the plants are taller than the panels. It also doesn’t work with corn, because corn doesn’t benefit from reduced sunlight.
Many people worry that solar arrays take agricultural land out of production. And it can. A badly designed solar array that is entirely focused on energy production and the profit of selling electricity over everything else can take farm land out of production.
In contrast, a thoughtfully designed agrivoltaic system costs about 1% more to build, leaves 95% of the land in production and produces more food. But to make this work, you have to have a deep understand of farming and farmers’ needs. Higgins is a farmer himself and stands proud in support of farmers.
“Crops are solar harvesters, so they need the same kind of conditions that solar panels need.” In a 2023 article, Higgins estimated that “converting just 1% of American farmland to agrivoltaics could meet the nation’s renewable energy targets. Making this transition could create new revenue opportunities for family farms facing steep economic challenges.”
More food on the table. More clean energy on the grid. Healthier soils. Thriving rural communities. In a world of trade-offs, agrivoltaics provide a rare win/win. A sustainable, profitable future that we can start building it right now.
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This article is based on a 2025 zoom talk by Professor Chad Higgins of Oregon State University. To hear the full recording, go to https://climaterealitypdx.com/ and scroll down to RECENT EVENTS, October 25 Chapter Meeting: Agrivoltaics.
By Katherine Brann Fredricks, Climate Reality Project Portland Chapter 2025 Events Lead. With Chris Toman, PhD candidate, and Laurie L. Houston, Senior Faculty Research Assistant, both at Oregon State University.