Agrivoltaics feasibility assessment for Washington state - report released

Funded by The Washington Department of Commerce, this is the first (to my knowledge) state-level agrivoltaics feasibility assessment that comprehensively combines mapping, site-specific solar performance and crop quality and yield modeling, extensive literature review, and farmer interviews and surveys.

This was a fun and fruitful collaboration with The Nature Conservancy Washington, Washington State University, and American Farmland Trust. We hope that this serves as a model for states or regions hoping to better understand their potential for agrivoltaics development. 

Key components of the study:

• Land suitability analysis to identify where solar-agriculture integration is most viable
• Legal and policy reviews of barriers and opportunities for agrivoltaics in WA
• Case studies of real-world agrivoltaic projects and their economic, environmental, and social impacts
• Crop-specific modeling to evaluate how crops perform under solar panels

Our lab (Riley Tinianov and Prof Wu) led the following:

• Developed modeling scenarios for apple orchard agrivoltaic systems in representative locations and assessed apple sunburn risk in central Washington
• Developed modeling scenarios for lettuce and strawberry yields under various panel configurations and 15 representative locations in WA
• Designed three property-specific agrivoltaic designs for three Washington farmers 
• Interviewed 10 farmers to understand the opportunities and barriers for agrivoltaics development in their cropping or livestock system 

This work helps inform policymakers, farmers, and energy developers on how to make agrivoltaics a win–win solution for clean energy and agricultural resilience in the Northwest.

• Read the full report here
• Check out TNC's overview and interactive agrivoltaics map viewer here