Could Agrivoltaics Contribute to Local Economies?

Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Yesterday we reported on the rise of agrivoltaics, or using the same land for both production agriculture and solar power generation. Adapture Renewables product developer Nathan Durfee says these projects can generate an impressive amount of energy.
Durfee… “For instance, when you've got like a space heater going and you have one of the highest powered ones. That is 1.5 kilowatts and these solar farms that we're talking about are a hundred megawatts. So it's a hundred thousand kilowatts of power going through. So that's a lot of space heaters, getting powered at once. So this, distributes out to homes and businesses in the area and they get their electricity powered from a renewable source instead.”
And providing power isn’t the only benefit to the local community. Durfee says it’s also a boost to the local tax base.
Durfee… “Property taxes on that go up, but we pay the property taxes and oftentimes property taxes go to fund local things like schools and police and fire department. So these local communities that often don't have a lot of revenue are getting this massive influx on that. So it's really helpful if we can have landowners that, show up to support these things.”
These are long term agreements though, so make sure to do your research before signing a solar farming lease.