With the agrivoltaic agriculture system, which allows production in more than one area on the same land, photovoltaic panels generate electricity on a certain piece of land, while on the other hand, areas suitable for agriculture are created between or under the panels.
Agrivoltaics are actually not new to the United States, futureflow.life reports. There are many parts of the country with solar panels on top and farmland underneath. But making it vertical? That's a whole new system. US solar developer iSun has teamed up with German agrivoltaic company Next2Sun to build the first vertical agrivoltaic system in the US.
Next2Sun installs bifacial solar panels on its patented vertical mounting system. These panels generate power during off-peak hours and are said to be ideal for farmland. The system is already in use on farms in Germany.
Construction of the first US vertical agrivoltaic system will begin in 2024. The address is Vermont. The system will sit on 3.7 acres and feature 69 vertical panels. Each panel will be equipped with a bifacial solar module. Root vegetables such as carrots and beets, as well as saffron, will be planted between the solar rows.
For now, the companies have not announced how much power the system will generate. It is also not clear who will benefit from the clean electricity generated or who the customers will be.
