September 19th, 2024
By Michael Shulman
American Farmland Trust Releases First-Ever Survey on Agrivoltaics in Colorado
Respondents Prefer Solar Projects on Underutilized Land, Concerns Over Negative Impacts on Land Conservation and Farm Productivity
(Washington, D.C.) American Farmland Trust has released the first-ever research report documenting how Colorado farmers, ranchers, and landowners feel about agrivoltaic solar energy development in the state. The goal is to better understand perceptions around solar energy, identify barriers to participation and inform recommendations for future agrivoltaics research, policy, and educational resources.
“Colorado needs both renewable energy and productive, resilient farms and ranches,” said AFT Agrivoltaics Senior Technical Specialist Austin Kinzer. “Agrivoltaics can be a win-win solution to diversify farm income, conserve water, and deploy clean energy, but there are significant barriers to adoption that we need to grapple with to ensure farmers and ranchers will benefit from this opportunity.”
AFT, in collaboration with AgriSolar Consulting LLC, Colorado State University Extension, and Colorado Open Lands, captured interests and concerns with agrivoltaics of Colorado producers, technical service providers and solar developers. In all, 312 Colorado-based producers were surveyed and 180 participated in regional and virtual roundtables.
The data revealed a strong preference for siting utility scale solar projects on less productive or underutilized farmland rather than on highly productive or actively farmed land. Thirty-three percent of respondents always favor using marginal or least productive land and land not suitable for pasture or cultivation (39% always favor). Furthermore, 51% of respondents never favor solar projects on the most productive farmland.
Survey responses found that the potential negative impact of solar projects on land conservation and farm productivity was of great concern. Most expressed concern about the impacts on land conservation (61%), farm productivity (57%), tenant farmers/ranchers leases (57%), the visual landscape (57%), farm and ranch viability (57%), soil quality (56%), land prices and access (52%), and impact on agricultural water rights (51%).
“Feedback from roundtables and survey findings clarify that producers need additional information on agrivoltaics to understand the opportunities and challenges, including soil and crop impacts, operational efficiency, and decommissioning,” said AFT Senior Manager for Smart Solar Outreach Greg Plotkin. “Despite these unknown factors, agrivoltaics provides a potentially boundless future for Coloradans, and we intend to build upon this research to improve the lives of the state agricultural community.”
AFT will be hosting a virtual overview of the project and invites interested farmers, ranchers, solar developers, and agricultural service providers to join. Register for AFT’s September 24 webinar entitled “Perspectives on Agrivoltaics in Colorado: Findings From the First-Ever Statewide Survey of the Agricultural Community.”
###
American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 8 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.