Community solar developer Lightstar Renewables has started development of the first agrivoltaics (agriPV) project in the US state of New York.
The Old Myers community solar project – which spans over 15 acres – will have a 2MW capacity and is expected to be completed by summer 2024.
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Solar panels will be mounted at a high enough height to allow adequate space for crops to grow, while offering protection from extreme weather events. Strawberries, tomatoes, peppers and lavender will be harvested at the Old Myers project.
Lightstar will work with local institutions in order to study the produce grown and document the financial and agricultural case studies of the project which will allow the farmers to retain the agricultural land while leasing it for the solar project for 25 years and generating income from it.
“Some of the most prime farmlands in New York lack active crop growth and that hurts a farmer’s ability to generate income. Most often, land also misses the opportunity to leverage solar as it’s seen as competition with farming,” said Paul Wheeler, founder and CEO of Lightstar Renewables.
“What many don’t realize is that solar and agriculture are perfect partners – their synergies are crucial to the security and resiliency of our community for green power as well as localised food sources. Lightstar’s Old Myers dual-use project is a solution to this challenge – it combines crop production and sustainable energy production, proving harmonious coexistence is possible.”
For this project, the community solar developer partnered with agricultural organisation the American Farmland Trust (AFT) to drive regenerative agricultural practices using AFT’s Smart Solar Siting Principles, and designed the project to combine crop production with community solar. Agrivoltaic consulting company Solar Agriculture Services also partnered with Lightstar on the project.
The developer said it was “very active” in agriPV earlier this year when speaking with PV Tech Premium, with Tom Brown, co-founder and COO at Lightstar, saying: “I definitely think that’s going to continue to grow and be a bigger part of both what we do and what other developers do as well.”
Even though agriPV has been more widely spread in utility-scale projects – at least in Europe, with Vattenfall earlier this week starting construction on Germany’s largest agriPV project with 79MW capacity – community solar developers are also working on implementing the dual-use of the land.
Interest in agriPV has been on the rise in the US, with several developers PV Tech spoke to at RE+ 2023 in Las Vegas earlier this month showing interest in it.
PV Tech Premium spoke with Lightstar Renewables on the subject of agriPV at RE+ 2023 in Las Vegas this September and will follow up soon.