Co-Location of Agriculture and Solar: 

Opportunities to Improve Energy, Food, and Water Resources

Jordan Macknick

JISEA Annual Meeting

March 14, 2019
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Low-impact site preparation

Pollinator and native vegetation solar

Solar-agricultural co-location

InSPIRE Project Overview

Department of Energy Funded (2015-2021)

Extensive Industry Partnerships 

Field and Analytical Modeling Work
• Water

o Reduced evaporation

o Reduced runoff

o Improved water use efficiency of crops and pollinator habitat

Benefits of Low-Impact Solar Development for 

Energy, Water, and Agricultural Resources

• Energy

o Improved solar PV efficiencies due to cooler microclimate underneath panels

o Reduced O&M costs

o Reduced construction and acquisition/permitting costs

• Agriculture

o Compatibility with crop production and livestock

o Pollinator habitat can improve local agricultural yields

o Improved soil health
InSPIRE Project Overview

Field-based research across multiple sites is driven by key scientific questions to provide foundational insights that will 

support economic, environmental, and agricultural evaluations of solar-agriculture co-location. Research topics include: 

(1) Economic viability of solar-agriculture co-location configurations. (University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Minnesota)

(2) Increasing agricultural yields in arid environments. (University of Arizona Biosphere 2 and Colorado State University) 

(3) Energy, water, and food security in remote, off-grid areas. (Puerto Rico and Indonesia) 

(4) Pollinator habitat and ecological services (Cornell University, Illinois, and Minnesota)

Location of current and under-development research sites
Specific research activities for field studies

Soil Carbon
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Arizona co-location facility: higher yields, less water, longer growing season

Massachusetts co-location facility: higher yields in hot, dry years

New sites planted or under development in Colorado, Oregon, Puerto Rico, United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia

Key Highlight: Co-Location can lead to 

Higher Crop Yields with Less Water
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Higher soil moisture in solar array area than in non-shaded (non-solar) control area

Significant variation in soil moisture levels depending location within array (directly underneath panels, in between 

rows, etc.)

Improved soil moisture retention for vegetated groundcover PV than for non-vegetated groundcover PV

Key Highlight: Vegetation under PV can 

Improve Soil Moisture Retention
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Chervil: annual herb related to parsley with a delicate anise-like flavor

Plants that received the altered light spectrum of LUMO in the late afternoon performed significantly better than 

chervil grown under a greenhouse with clear covering.

Key Highlight: Solar-Integrated 

Greenhouses can Improve Yields

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Wet Weight Dry Weight Height

Relative Growth

Clear Control

LUMO East

LUMO West
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Over 860,000 acres of agricultural land would benefit if 

existing solar facilities had pollinator-friendly vegetation

Key Highlight: Pollinator-Friendly Solar

Examining the Potential for Agricultural Benefits from Pollinator Habitat at Solar Facilities in the United States.. 

Leroy J. Walston, Shruti K. Mishra, Heidi M. Hartmann, Ihor Hlohowskyj, James McCall, Jordan Macknick 2018. 

Environmental Science & Technology Vol. 52 (13) 3 July 2018 pp. 7566-7576.
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Hives can be located in or outside of project fence

Innovative branding and marketing opportunities

Ongoing work evaluating honeybee and native bee preferences

Key Highlight: Solar-Powered Honey Production
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Sustainable grazing practices can improve soils

Cost reductions from standard mowing practices

Ongoing work evaluating pastureland performance

Key Highlight: Solar-Integrated Grazing
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Siting on reservoirs can reduce evaporation and algae growth

Avoid conflicts with land used for agriculture

Recent NREL study identified over 25,000 man-made

reservoirs that could supply 10% of U.S. power

Key Highlight: Floating Solar on 

Agricultural Reservoirs

Generation Potential (TWh/year)

Floating Photovoltaic Systems: Assessing the Technical Potential of Photovoltaic Systems on ManMade Water Bodies in the Continental United States. Robert S. Spencer, Jordan Macknick, Alexandra Aznar, 

Adam Warren, and Matthew O. Reese. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2019, 53 (3), pp 1680–1689
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Educational benefits through internships, field trips, work experience, tours

Elementary school through PhD students

State agency, academic, and professional training

Key Highlight: Education through field research 
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Pollinator-Friendly solar standards and scorecards

State Agency partnerships and technical assistance

Direct partnerships with solar and agricultural industry

University initiatives

Key Highlight: Broad Stakeholder Impacts
• There are many opportunities for synergies between agriculture and 

solar energy development

• Solar projects can be designed and constructed in ways that improve 

energy, water, and agricultural resources

• Low-impact designs can lead to reductions in some upfront and O&M 

costs for solar developers, while also increasing solar energy output

• There are many innovative configurations that can be employed and that 

still have not been tested

Closing Thoughts
JISEA—Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis 16

Thank you

This work was authored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance 

for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. 

DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy 

Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily 

represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government retains and 

the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. 

Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or 

reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government 

purposes.

Jordan.Macknick@nrel.gov

https://openei.org/wiki/InSPIRE

NREL/PR-6A50-73696