Matt Riggs' family has been farming in Urbana since 1874. But, his parents had to work second jobs to cushion themselves from the volatile corn and soybean markets that dominate Illinois' agricultural sector. In the past few years, Riggs has realized the land his family has worked for 150 years is also ideal for solar panels.
It's flat, well-drained and gets lots of sunlight. As Illinois strives to convert 40% of its energy consumption to renewables by 2030 and 100% by 2050, solar installations are expected to increase by 1,700% over the next five years, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Across the country, approximately 83% of new solar projects developed by 2040 will be installed on farm and ranch land, according to a 2022 American Farmland Trust analysis.
But, broad, low-lying solar arrays are not inherently compatible with farming. They typically take land out of agricultural production. This doesn't have to be the case, however.
An emerging field called agrivoltaics suggests shorter, shade-tolerant crops may grow well in the small spaces between panels. After installing solar panels at his brewery and seeing how reliable they were, Riggs wondered if he could use them to hedge his farm's balance sheet. "The sun is going to come up on average a certain amount of time so you can build a really stable, predictable financial model, which I looked at having grown up on a farm and was like 'Wow, that's awesome,'" said Riggs.
Some Google searches led him to a.