Vegetables are already sprouting at a pilot project by Piedmont Environmental Council combining solar panels with agriculture.
Vegetables are already sprouting at a pilot project by Piedmont Environmental Council combining solar panels with agriculture.
Legislation aimed at supporting agrivoltaics—the process of combining farming with solar energy generation—is advancing through the General Assembly.
Two of Loudoun’s legislators, Sen. Russet Perry (D-31) and Del. John McAuliff (D-30), have introduced bills that would begin to shape state code to make such projects easier to construct in Virginia. SB 340 and HB 508 would define agrivoltaics when referring to small renewable energy projects.
Projects qualifying to meet that definition must be designed to prioritize and sustain agricultural productivity while integrating renewable energy, allow ongoing production and sale of agricultural products, be a part of an existing farm business, and ensure flexibility for farmers to adapt to market conditions and support operational needs.
“Agriculture is Virginia’s number one economic sector, and this bill provides an opportunity for our farms to meaningfully participate in supporting their farms, the agricultural economy, and energy demands with clean energy,” Perry told a Senate committee reviewing the bill.
The definition is specifically crafted to keep farm uses at the forefront of the operation, she added.
“Grazing a few sheep once a year or planting grass for appearances alone should not qualify as agricultural production,” Perry said.
McAuliff, who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture prior to running for office, said while there he helped small farmers succeed by building small-scale agrivoltaics projects,
“What we saw, for nearly 10,000 farmers … is an enormous relief that many of these farmers could feel who could zero out their own energy bills using these systems and, in some cases,even make some extra revenue as well,” he said.
The legislation is supported by the Virginia Farm Bureau, Virginia’s Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry, Virginia League of Conservation Voters, Southern Environmental Law Center, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Virginia Conservation Network and the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club.
The bills have received approval from the General Assembly, with SB 340 approved by the Senate Feb. 9 on a 27-13 vote, and HB 508 approved by the House on Feb. 11 with a 66-30 vote.
Loudoun is home to a pilot agrivoltaics project, launched last fall by the Piedmont Environmental Council at its community farm near Aldie.
The $150,000 project includes four rows of vegetables alternating with 42 mounted solar panels and four raised vegetable beds. It was funded by PEC donors and a grant from the National Renewable Energy Lab. Farm Coordinator Teddy Pitsiokos said that of the farm’s 3.5 acres under production, 1,500 square feet is dedicated to the solar project. The plantings include a variety of fall vegetables such as kale, turnips, bok choy, collard greens, cabbage and broccoli.
PEC Senior Energy and Climate Advisor Ashish Kapoor said the organization used grants and technical assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy to bring the project to fruition.
Agrivoltaics projects like that one can help bridge the gap between energy and farms, he said.
“There’s obviously tension and increasing tension around retaining prime agricultural lands, and then the transition to utility scale solar and that tension, I would say, is deepening, if only for data center demand, and then just increased energy demands, which means more solar. So, the idea was, let’s just see how we can do both together, and frame it as an experiment,” Kapoor said. If projects like this can expand in the state, it can help address growing energy needs, he said.
A definition in state code, like the ones introduced by Perry and McAuliff, would help preserve the agricultural integrity of agrivoltaics projects, so they don’t turn into industrial sites, he said.
“We’ve seen large-scale retrofitted projects in which there’s no water infrastructure, there’s not proper forage, there’s not on–site housing for the animals. It’s not really integrated into the ag community,” Kapoor said.
That also happens on smaller scale projects as well, he added.
“All those things, sort of effectively have sort of created a certain narrative, and some doubts about whether agrivoltaics really is something real,” he said.
But if projects like this can expand in the state, they can help address growing energy needs, he said.
“We’ve got 40,000ish farms in Virginia. And if you did a did a one-megawatt project on each one, a small four- or five-acre project, that’s 40 gigawatts,” Kapoor said. “That’s more than what we need. Obviously, we’re not getting all that, but if we get portions of all of that, and there’s state policy and buy in, and whatever else the General Assembly can agree upon over the next couple of years, it can really help facilitate, energy independence for farmers.”
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