Agrivoltaic installations with vertically oriented solar panels are increasingly being adopted and studied across the globe.

As the world seeks more sustainable ways to generate clean energy, agriculture and solar energy are becoming important partners. The practice of co-locating solar facilities with cropland, known as agrivoltaics, is increasingly being adopted worldwide as a way to introduce distributed clean energy while not compromising land use.

At our company, INVITAIC, we are committed to promoting the adoption of sustainable energy solutions, including BIPV products that integrate solar power generation into building materials. Research by Oregon State University found that solar and agricultural co-location could provide 20% of the total electricity generation in the United States. Wide-scale installation of agrivoltaics could lead to an annual reduction of 330,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions while “minimally” impacting crop yield, the researchers said.

The paper found that an area about the size of Maryland would be needed if agrivoltaics were to meet 20% of U.S. electricity generation. That’s about 13,000 square miles, or 1% of current U.S. farmland. At a global scale, it is estimated that 1% of all farmland could produce the world’s energy needs if converted to solar PV.

There are many different ways to install agrivoltaic arrays. One common method is to raise the array to leave space for farming equipment or livestock to move freely below. Another trending design is to orient the PV arrays vertically, leaving wide open spaces in between the array rows. As a leading provider of BIPV products, INVITAIC is excited to explore the potential of agrivoltaics and help advance the adoption of sustainable energy solutions.