2023 New York Laws › AGM - Agriculture and Markets › Article 11-A - Agricultural Environmental Management › 151-J - Agrivoltaics Research Program.

* §   151-j.   Agrivoltaics  research  program.  1.  There  is  hereby
established the  agrivoltaics  research  program.  The  purpose  of  the
program  is  to develop innovative science-based solutions to facilitate
the  co-location  of  crops  and  photovoltaics  while   promoting   the
biodiversity  of endemic flora and fauna. In developing the program, the
New York state college  of  agriculture  and  life  sciences,  as  named
pursuant  to  section  fifty-seven  hundred twelve of the education law,
shall  conduct,  support,  and  develop  technologies   and   management
strategies,   along   with   verifications  systems  to  facilitate  the
sustainable and resilient co-location of crops and photovoltaics.
2. Subject to available appropriations, the  program  shall  consider,
but  not  be  limited to, the following: crop varietals and/or livestock
suitable  for  agrivoltaics;  siting  design  considerations  and  array
installation  techniques compatible with agricultural co-location and/or
biodiversity  conservation;  and  integration  of  digital  and  robotic
technologies.    The   program   shall   also   concomitantly   consider
socio-economics in  the  formation  of  research  trials  and  published
recommendations.  The  program  shall conduct and demonstrate successful
cropping and/or livestock systems and technologies  in  pilot  locations
throughout  the  state  of  New York and is hereby authorized to conduct
such research on the state's agricultural experiment stations, and other
locations deemed suitable for private and public sector partnerships  to
evaluate,  determine,  and  recommend strategies to enable agrivoltaics.
The Cornell Cooperative Extension system shall be utilized for knowledge
transfer, and annual reports shall be made and publicly disseminated.
3. The program shall include, but not be limited to, research  on  the
following topics, consistent with New York state's climate goals:
(a)  methods  to  maximize  the  economic  efficiency  and  scientific
efficacy of the co-location of agricultural crops and photovoltaics;
(b) improvements or enhancements in biodiversity  when  combined  with
low-lying or elevated photovoltaic installments;
(c)  development,  testing  and  deployment of technologies, including
digital  agriculture  systems,  small-scale   robotics   for   planting,
harvesting, and crop management;
(d)  research  that facilitates productive agrivoltaics across several
different  varieties  of   crops   including   research   that   enables
understanding  of  agrivoltaics  effects  on  soil  health,  soil carbon
sequestration, erosion, water  management,  and  specialty  crop  canopy
management for enhanced climate resiliency; and
(e)  research  that quantifies total kilowatts produced, rates of crop
production, and greenhouse gas emissions avoided in lieu of fossil  fuel
generation.
4.  Such  program  shall be funded by appropriations made available in
chapter fifty-three of the laws of two thousand twenty-three to the  New
York   state  college  of  agriculture  and  life  sciences  at  Cornell
university for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  ecological  impacts  of
agrivoltaics,  and any future appropriation made thereafter for the same
purpose.
* NB Repealed December 31, 2030