Agrivoltaics: The Future of Sustainable Land Use
As the world races to meet the growing demands for food, energy, and climate resilience, the pressure on land use has never been greater. Traditional solar farms often occupy large plots of arable land, displacing agriculture in the name of clean energy. But what if we didn’t have to choose between the two?
Agrivoltaics, the integration of solar panels with agricultural production on the same land, offers a compelling solution. By allowing crops to grow beneath or between elevated photovoltaic panels, this dual-use approach turns competition for land into collaboration. Farmers can harvest sunlight twice: once for electricity, and once for food.
Early results from projects like the agrivoltaic farm at the University of Colorado (CU) show that this isn’t just theoretical. The CU Boulder research team reported greater crop resilience during heatwaves, reduced water use, and comparable or even improved yields under certain conditions. These findings highlight how solar infrastructure can enhance, not hinder, farming performance.
How Agrivoltaics Works
At its core, an agrivoltaic system combines solar panels with agriculture in a way that both can thrive on the same piece of land. But how does this look and function in practice?
Solar panels are mounted on elevated structures, typically two to four metres above the ground, allowing farm equipment, workers, and sunlight to pass through. These raised panels are spaced to balance the dual needs of energy generation and crop health. They don’t block the sun entirely—instead, they filter and diffuse the light, creating a dappled shading effect that reduces heat stress and slows evaporation, especially in hot climates.
The setup creates a microclimate beneath the panels. Airflow is improved, temperatures are more stable, and soil moisture is better retained. This not only supports healthy plant growth but also helps cool the panels themselves, improving their energy efficiency. It’s a feedback loop where agriculture and energy production enhance each other.
Agrivoltaics is flexible by design: its layout, height, and tilt can be tailored to what a given farm needs most—shade, sun, or harvest space. The goal isn’t simply coexistence, but mutual benefit.
The Hidden Benefits: Soil, Plants, Water, and Energy Efficiency
For the soil, the presence of overhead panels moderates ground-level conditions. Shade reduces direct sunlight and wind exposure, leading to slower evaporation rates and improved moisture retention. This keeps soil cooler and more stable, especially during midday heat. In turn, these microclimatic conditions help protect soil microbial communities, which are essential for nutrient cycling and long-term soil fertility. Healthier soil also resists compaction and erosion more effectively—especially when combined with cover crops or perennial planting.
Plants benefit from this moderated environment. Crops grown under partial shade may experience less water stress, particularly in regions prone to drought or temperature extremes. The shading effect helps maintain steady transpiration rates, reducing wilting during peak heat and supporting more resilient growth. While some sun-loving species may require adjusted spacing or more light-tolerant panel setups, many vegetables and forage crops perform as well—or better—under agrivoltaic conditions. In some studies, yields of lettuce, tomatoes, and chilies increased under partial shade.
Meanwhile, the solar panels themselves also benefit. Traditional PV panels lose efficiency when overheated—but when positioned above green, transpiring crops, panels stay cooler than if installed over bare ground. This natural cooling effect can boost photovoltaic output by 1–2%, depending on climate. That may sound modest, but across a large farm-scale installation, it translates into significant additional energy and income.
This synergy between soil, plants, and panels is what makes agrivoltaics so powerful. It’s not a simple trade-off—it’s a reinforcing loop. The crops create conditions that help panels perform better, and the panels create conditions that help crops grow stronger. The outcome: higher efficiency per hectare in both food and energy terms, with the bonus of environmental resilience.
Challenges and Adoption Barriers
While agrivoltaics holds immense promise, widespread adoption still faces significant hurdles.
One of the most common barriers is upfront cost—not just for solar infrastructure, but for the specialised mounting systems and design work needed to support dual land use. Layout complexity also poses a challenge: balancing machinery access, irrigation, shade levels, and energy output requires careful planning, and the expertise to execute it.
Additionally, there remains a lack of awareness among both farmers and energy developers. Many are unaware that agrivoltaic systems even exist—or mistakenly assume they require perfect conditions or niche crops. On the policy side, zoning regulations and incentive structures often favour single-use solar farms, creating roadblocks for integrated land use projects.
However, new tools are emerging to reduce uncertainty. Real-time sensor systems that track soil moisture, temperature, and crop performance can help de-risk early adoption. By providing evidence-based insights into what works, these technologies support better design decisions and adaptive management.
Agrivoltaics works—but it requires a support system of data, funding, and awareness to scale effectively.
The Role of Real-Time Sensing in Agrivoltaic Systems
BioSensor Solutions is aiming to tackle this uncertainty by combining agrivoltaics with a next-generation microbial soil health platform designed specifically for integrated agricultural environments.
Unlike traditional sensor systems that focus solely on irrigation or soil temperature, BioSensor Solutions’ platform goes deeper—literally. The system deploys a network of surface and buried sensors that continuously monitor soil moisture, microbial activity, and indicators of environmental stress, such as rapid temperature fluctuations. These data streams are relayed in real time to a central dashboard, where farmers and developers can visualise trends, set alerts, and make decisions based on live field conditions.
For farmers, this means precision agriculture tools tailored to shaded or microclimatic growing zones beneath solar arrays. They can track soil health down to the root zone, optimise irrigation schedules, and validate whether panel configurations are supporting or harming crop growth. For solar developers, the platform provides ground condition data that informs maintenance cycles, cooling optimisation, and land management planning.
Most importantly, the insights gained help future-proof operations. Data-driven feedback loops enable better system design, reduce performance uncertainty, and support faster learning curves for new adopters. By monitoring the land’s biological and physical responses, users can improve both crop resilience and photovoltaic return on investment (ROI) over time.
As agrivoltaics matures, integrated sensing will no longer be optional—it will be the intelligence layer that keeps food and energy production aligned and adaptive.
Future Outlook: Regenerative Energy and Agriculture
Agrivoltaics is more than a technical solution—it represents a new philosophy of land use that bridges the gap between regenerative agriculture and renewable energy production. Rather than depleting resources, it creates systems that actively restore soil health, support biodiversity, and strengthen local economies.
By integrating solar infrastructure with agricultural practices, agrivoltaic systems help sequester carbon through living soils, reduce the need for synthetic inputs, and provide critical habitat corridors for pollinators and wildlife. This layered land-use approach supports climate adaptation by improving water retention, stabilising microclimates, and building resilience into both food and energy systems.
As more regions face the dual pressures of land scarcity and climate volatility, agrivoltaics will become a cornerstone of sustainable development. But to truly deliver on this promise, we need more than panels and crops—we need intelligence on the ground.
That’s where BioSensor Solutions plays a pivotal role. By equipping these systems with real-time sensing and microbial monitoring, they enable continuous land stewardship and faster innovation cycles. Whether for carbon tracking, soil restoration, or biodiversity enhancement, BioSensor’s platform ensures agrivoltaics becomes not just scalable—but truly regenerative.
Partner With Us: Bring Microbial Insight to Your Agrivoltaics Project
Are you running an agrivoltaics initiative and looking to optimise soil health and crop performance?
We’re seeking forward-thinking partners to pilot our microbial activity tracking platform — enabling real-time insights into soil biome health under solar-integrated agriculture.
If you're interested in exploring how microbial monitoring can drive better agronomic and sustainability outcomes, we’d love to hear from you.
Join Our 2025 Regenerative Digital Soil Health Pilot!
Are you a grower, farm advisor, or ag-tech provider exploring the future of regenerative agriculture?
BioSensor Solutions is launching our 2025 Digital Soil Health Pilot — and we’re seeking forward-thinking partners to join us.
Ideal Pilot Partners
- 🌿 Growers and farm advisors — trialling regenerative practices
- 🧪 Biofertilizer producers — validating microbial performance
- 🔗 Ag-tech integrators — embedding live soil data
- 🛒 Retailers — enabling regenerative sourcing
Let’s Collaborate!
We’re currently partnering with innovators across the agriculture value chain to test and refine our real-time soil sensing platform. If you're ready to explore what’s happening beneath the surface, we’d love to hear from you.
Contact us today to schedule a meeting and learn more about the pilot program.
Dr. Daniel Carroll is an electrochemist specialising in the development of biosensors for environmental, agricultural, and healthcare applications. He has worked in academic research, early-stage startups, and as a scientific consultant, helping translate early-stage innovations into practical technologies.
In addition to his research, Daniel advises companies on sensor development and scientific communication. He is the founder of Electrochemical Insights, a Substack that helps research students and early-career scientists build confidence in electrochemistry and apply it effectively in real-world research.
🔗 Connect on LinkedIn | 🌐 Electrochemical Insights
