ISU studying the impacts of growing food under solar panels

Aug 29, 2024

An innovative research project at the Alliant Energy Solar Farm at Iowa State University is studying how to grow crops on a 1.35 megawatt solar farm. A multidisciplinary team at ISU is growing fruits and vegetables as well as raising bees around and underneath the panels. This concept is known as agrivotaics, and interest in it is growing. The project is funded by the Department of Energy, with the goal of seeing how possible it is to grow crops in a commercial way on a solar farm. Studying how the crops perform while receiving some shade from the panels, and how easy it is for workers to harvest the plants are just some of the questions the researchers are trying to answer. Success could lead to more solar panels being brought into farmland without eliminating food production, providing growers with an opportunity to get more use out of the land.