Moving Agrivoltaics Forward in the Midwest

As summer has turned to fall, the past few months have been busy with conferences, field days, and most importantly, field work.

2026 Solar Farm Summit

We started off August with four jam-packed days at the Solar Farm Summit. I, along with Dr. Emily Cole, Senior Scientist & Technical Specialist, and Catie Field, National Smart Solar Coordinator, helped to kick off the conference with a packed Soil Health 101 session. Emily discussed the importance of treating soil the right way at the beginning of projects and then Catie and I demonstrated what happens when you don’t through the visuals of a slake test and rainfall simulator. Our Smart Solar℠ team had many conversations with people from across the industry about our Smart Solar Principles and learned from some of the best in our field at the many sessions. These events were also a great opportunity to meet up with our Smart Solar sponsors.

SCAPES Field Day

A few weeks later, the University of Illinois SCAPES Project team held a field day at the Energy Farm to discuss the many projects they are working on. Our Midwest Policy Manager, Claire Shipp and I attended to learn and see the innovative research they are working on. The U of I team is looking at specialty crop production and row crop production underneath and in-between rows of solar panels. They also showed their perennial bio-mass crop research, particularly nitrogen rates and timing on miscanthus.

Ribbon Cutting in Eldorado, IL

Sol Systems, one of our Smart Solar sponsors with whom we are partnering on two different research projects, hosted a ribbon-cutting event at their Eldorado Solar Project in Saline County, Illinois in late September. It was a beautiful, sunny day, though the site was soggy after some much-needed rain. Attendees heard from company founder and CEO Yuri Horwitz; Dan Shugar, CEO of Nextracker; Kevin Deters, COO of SOLV, and officials from the city of Eldorado and their schools. I offered comments on our involvement in the project and what agrivoltaic research and commitment to agriculture from Sol Systems means to farmers and their communities. We spent some time looking at the agrivoltaic site, talking with company representatives and other partners of the project about the challenges with implementing non-grazing agrivoltaics and ideas to continue advancing agrivoltaics. The day ended with a wonderful Eldorado FFA- led event raising funds for the new greenhouse at Eldorado High School. It is always great to see a community show up and support endeavors that offer opportunities for their students and the community’s future.

Field Work and Planting Kernza©

The Kernza project has been moving forward, though not without some setbacks like any farming operation experiences in a year. We had initially planned to plant the Kernza in early September. The area was experiencing some extreme drought conditions, and we wanted to ensure we had adequate soil moisture available for the seed to grow. The site received a couple of inches of rain right before the ribbon-cutting event. We aligned our partners to begin site work, killed off the existing vegetation, and prepared to plant the following week. Our first attempt at planting was curtailed by another rain event. We took advantage of the time to do some other preparations and site work and made plans to come back the following week. Utilizing a John Deere 4440 and a 15’ Tye no-till drill, we completed seeding in a day and a half. We worked through some challenges, as we expected there to be, but everything went well. I will be back on-site in a week or so to do a stand count as the site received another rain a few days later, which was perfect.

The past few months have been a whirlwind but deeply rewarding at the same time. I can’t wait to keep these conversations going this winter! Ask me about Kernza, soil health, and all things agrivoltaics if bump into each other.