Agrivoltaics Can Win Alberta’s Land Use Competition, Experts Suggest

As Alberta’s seven-month renewables moratorium nears its expiration in February, experts are hoping the agriculture and energy sectors can come together for agrivoltaics—with effective provincial regulation navigating competing land use priorities.

When it comes to deciding between energy and food, “it’s not just dependent on the nature of the land,” energy systems thinker Maggie Hanna, a fellow at the Energy Futures Lab, told The Energy Mix. “It’s also dependent on what the community needs.”

Some of the questions that come into play include: “How can we put something here that feeds more people? What creates local work and jobs? There’s a lot of things to consider other than just the [class rating] of the land.”

Agrivoltaics—where solar panels are installed on agricultural land while allowing crops to grow beneath and around them—can resolve some of the tensions that arise when farmers and solar developers vie for land parcels, Hanna said. This has become a concern with rapid solar expansion and the increasing amount of land needed for new solar installations.

Right now, the profitability of offsetting fossil fuels has led to a proliferation of solar companies in Alberta, leaving some residents worried about how allocating land for solar panels will affect food production. These concerns are amplified because retiring farmers can secure more profitable leases by turning their land over to solar developers, rather than other farmers.

But the growing interest in agrivoltaics can provide “a seemingly simple solution to a potentially complicated land use debate between agriculture and energy generation within the province,” writes Prof. Joshua M. Pearce, information technology and innovation chair at Western University, in The Conversation.

Not only does farmland offer space for enough solar generation to support grid electrification, but research is showing that solar installations designed to accommodate farming can actually yield benefits for food production, such as when panels help shade plants and animals to avoid heat stress or limit water evaporation from soil.

But putting solar arrays on farmland can have damaging effects, as well, when developers prioritize construction costs over maintaining the land’s productivity. Especially when highly productive farmland—which is often flat and open—is used for solar panels.

Some critics point to these instances to suggest that only second-rate farmland can be used for solar, but others note how panels have sometimes improved productivity and soil health. When installations are done properly, solar panels and prime farmland can still coexist, experts say. But proper systems and regulations are needed to navigate the competing uses and protect against destructive practices.

“Boundary lines need to be put in place to ensure that if you’re going to put solar panels on farmland, that that land should look better for agriculture when you are done,” Hanna said.

In a 2022 study, Pearce said aligning provincial and regional policies is “imperative” to promote agrivoltaic development in Alberta “without compromising current land use.” Such policies include clear definition and categorization of available technology, incentives to prioritize agrivoltaics over standard solar development, and “developing agrivoltaics technology-friendly regulations and frameworks.”

With these measures, “Alberta can achieve conservation and sustainability in the food and energy sectors, while simultaneously addressing their renewable energy and climate-related goals,” Pearce wrote.