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Renewables

Agri Solar Clearing House

What is the AgriSolar Clearinghouse?

Solar installations may cover more than 3 million acres of the United States over the next decade, opening the door for PV to be paired with agricultural land to produce food, conserve ecosystems, and maximize income for farmers. This opportunity, led by the National Center for Appropriate Technology to launch, is said to be the nation’s first AgriSolar Clearinghouse to connect farmers, ranchers, land managers, solar developers, and researchers with information about co-locating solar and agriculture...

The AgriSolar Clearinghouse is an information-sharing, relationship-building, public communications hub for all things agrisolar. The AgriSolar community will:

  • Connect farmers, developers, researchers, and the public
  • Provide practical technical assistance
  • Develop best practices and innovative solutions to barriers
  • Evaluate innovative financing options
  • Promote sustainable agrisolar opportunities
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Solar Symposium

Virtual Solar Symposium

I thought you might appreciate the upcoming Solar and Wildlife/Natural Resources Symposium from December 1st – 3rd. It's remote; they will share recordings after the sessions if you are busy during that time. There's a very interesting mix of speakers and topics. American Farmland Trust, Defenders of Wildlife, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, National Audubon Society, and American Solar Grazing Association are presenting, to name a few. 

Dual-use solar is increasingly recognized as a way to accelerate climate “mitigation” (slowing down) while enhancing farm and ranch viability, soil health, and water management.

For many people in the conservation field, as well as community members, this perspective and the supporting data require a paradigm shift.

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Solara
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE

Agrivoltaics to protect crops from heavy rainfall

If agriculture is going to flourish in a changing climate, we need to think about how to support it given increasingly extreme weather, blights, and management challenges. With millions of dollars going to farm viability efforts in the U.S. every year, it's completely possible that we as a country would also start to channel some of those funds to support elevated solar. Solar and orchards is a new idea for me, but I could see it having a lot of benefits in areas dealing with hail and extreme weather.

BayWa r.e. and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE have built a 258 kW agrivoltaic system that hosts apple cultivation under four different crop protection systems. The system utilizes agrivoltaic technology with permanent, light-permeable PV modules that block rain, and tracking PV module tech that blocks rain only if necessary…

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Solar And Ag
Werner Slocum, NREL

The future of agriculture combined with renewable energy finds success at Jack’s Solar Garden

Across the world, and here in the U.S., those who care about farm and ranch viability, healthy soils, and water retention are realizing that elevated solar, and solar that works well with large animals and crops, is going to be an important piece in the conservation puzzle.

Jack’s Solar Garden is the largest commercially active agrivoltaics system researching crop and vegetation growth under photovoltaic solar panels in the United States. The garden generates enough power for more than 300 homes from 3,276 solar panels (6 ft and 8 ft) that create a 1.2-MW community solar garden.

Audubon Rockies, a regional office of the bird protection society, established their largest Habitat Hero pollinator habitat in Colorado around the solar array, while a local nonprofit farming organization, Sprout City Farms, trains young farmers to cultivate crops under the solar panels…

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Are Natural Climate Vid

Stanford researchers discuss imperative to combine natural and industrial approaches to global decarbonization

Natural climate solutions are an important part of the puzzle — including soils — but unless we transition off fossil fuels in the near term, and conserve more energy, those natural climate solutions are increasingly at risk.

Protecting carbon sinks, such as forests and wetlands, is key to slowing climate change, but only part of the puzzle, Stanford researchers say. Reducing emissions is still essential for meeting global climate goals…

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Flowers And Solar
Rob Davis

Farm-friendly solar site management

You have an opportunity to help others understand, and embrace, the importance of compatible renewables. We need people to understand that nature and farms need us to transition away from fossil fuels ASAP. And that means supporting renewables in ways that help with farm viability, pollinators, soil health, and water quality.

You may find the slides of this presentation helpful in understanding how you and/or community organizations can think through how solar can be compatible with conservation and farming goals — and how to help communities recognize the importance.

There is an opportunity to help people understand how compatible wind and solar can add to farm viability, soil health, and water quality.

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Solar And Tractors
NREL

Largest agrivoltaic research project in U.S. advances renewable energy while empowering local farmers

The time has come to help clarify that farmland and solar can work together — and become a key tool in keeping farmland viable, and in the hands of farming families.

Jack’s Solar Garden, a 1.2-MW solar farm in Boulder County, Colorado, is unique in that it represents the largest agrivoltaic research project in the United States and encompasses four types of vegetation at a single site.

According to [Byron] Kominek, he wanted the farm to be “a model for other small farms that want to keep their soils productive while taking advantage of the economic benefits that clean energy production can provide.”

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Solar Sunny
hawaiipublicradio.org

A solar energy toolkit for your community

There are a number of communities fighting solar and wind. Sometimes this is with good reason; they can be poorly designed. Yet that doesn't have to be the case.

“The Hudson Valley can serve as a model for how a region can effectively respond to climate change. Scenic Hudson’s How To Solar Now toolkit supports communities in a rapid transition to a sustainable, low carbon region increasingly powered by clean, emissions-free renewable energy while also protecting and preserving our invaluable scenic, historic, agricultural, environmental and economic resources.”

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Car Battery
Pixabay

New recycling techniques set to make electric vehicles greener

One of the pushbacks renewables receive is centered around waste. It's a bit ironic, because oil, gas, and coal don't get the same pushback — yet they destroy mountains, water, land... and the climate. But here is good news, regardless. You could share this.

Researchers in Britain and the United States have found ways to recycle electric vehicle batteries that can drastically cut costs and carbon emissions, shoring up sustainable supplies for an expected surge in demand.

The techniques, which involve retrieving parts of the battery so they can be reused, would help the auto industry tackle criticism that even though EVs reduce emissions over their lifetime, they start out with a heavy carbon footprint of mined materials…

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Solar Grazing Map
OnPasture

Solar grazing: A new income stream for livestock producers

We are going to need renewables at a large scale in the U.S. — and soon. Rather than wipe out forests, we could encourage solar that works with farmland. We need conservationists to help make this a reality. You can share these articles to let people know that dual-use solar can help farmland and farmers.

Utility-scale solar arrays may cover 3 million acres across the U.S. by 2030, according to the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). This is causing tension with farmers and farmland advocates, as the panels are often sited on good agricultural land, displacing current production.

One solution is to restrict solar developments from being installed on farmland. But there are other solutions worth pursuing, too. Most large-scale solar arrays are located in rural areas where economies are hurting and farmer numbers are dwindling…

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