City, Columbia University to gauge attitudes on combining ag operations, solar farms
One day, Kern County farmland could serve the dual purposes of agricultural production and renewable energy generation, with rows of valuable crops growing amid vast arrays of photovoltaic solar panels.
Such installations don’t exist locally on a large scale, and there may be challenges to address first. But already there’s talk of how agrivoltaics, as the combination is called, could promote California’s priorities of expanding renewable energy production and promoting sustainable farming practices.
In the meantime, the city of Bakersfield is teaming up with researchers at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies to gauge local attitudes toward agrivoltaics in hopes of helping guide local economic development.
The city has helped spread word about a brief online survey put together by Columbia students as a kind of pro-bono consulting project for a real-world client. The idea behind the questions, which are available in English, Spanish and Punjabi, is to explore agrivoltaics’ possible benefits and challenges, as well as any potential local impacts.
“We are quantifying the potential impacts on the food-energy-water nexus in Kern County, building on the growing body of research in the Western U.S.,” Columbia graduate student Kathryn Beros said by email.
“So far, we’ve seen agrivoltaics pilot sites in the region indicate promising water savings potential. Our research seeks to answer the question: Can agrivoltaics create the option for farmers in Kern County to continue farming while achieving water conservation goals?”
Beros noted the team of researchers is cataloguing practices that limit the pairing of ag with solar today and which ones “require a simple custom configuration to accommodate.” She added that results from the
survey are expected to be published in mid-May.
The questions are part of a larger research project involving work with the city and other local groups to assess what effects agrivoltaics would have on water, energy and ag in Kern County, Beros added.
Agrivoltaics has come up repeatedly in recent years as a potential solution for local farmers grappling with rising water costs and other expenses that have threatened their traditional way of life. Among options for increasing their per-acre income may be investment in solar power.
So far there has been limited development of solar generation on local farmland. One reason is a lack of transmission capacity: Although Kern leads California in renewable energy production, the largest solar farms are located in the eastern portion of the county, where more transmission lines exist to carry power produced at solar and wind farms to the cities that use it.
While there has been some construction of solar arrays in the county’s valley portion, little if any of it coexists with ag, partly because of the difficulty of operating large equipment next to solar installations, as well as the practicalities of kicking up dust next to photovoltaic panels. There has been some hesitance to graze livestock, or even irrigate, near expensive electronics, and some of the county’s most lucrative crops — nuts and citrus — leave little room for solar panels.
Hoping to find ways to overcome those obstacles, Bakersfield College Delano Campus recently unveiled its new Regenerative Agriculture Education Center. Operating in partnership with the California Renewable Energy Laboratory, the center includes a composting system and biochar demonstration offering lessons on the broader goal of increasing agricultural sustainability.
The city of Bakersfield sees its work with Columbia as underscoring a commitment to bringing local stakeholders into the process of shaping the future of local ag and energy.
“This partnership represents a milestone in Bakersfield’s journey toward economic development within the green technology space and is a testament to our commitment to fostering innovation and sustainability in our community,” city spokesman Joseph Conroy said by email.
The survey doesn’t focus exclusively on agrivoltaics. For example, it asks respondents how involved they are in local political affairs, and where they get their local news. Beros said that’s because the university’s research students are delving into three related areas: energy, agriculture and community impact.
“Their objective is to identify communication gaps in understanding the awareness and perceptions of integrating renewable energy and agriculture production in Kern County,” she wrote.
The survey is available online at https://csce.co1. qualtrics.com/jfe/form/ SV_37rRi7cUHv7BCDA.