An Agrivoltaics Resource Centre (ARC) report recommends development proposals should outline specific plans for co-locating agricultural production within a utility-scale facility as part of the environmental impact statement (EIS) process.
“Previous experience of proposed solar developments is that construction design has been focussed on engineering, cost, and meeting planning approval requirements,” the report says.
“To ensure that agricultural systems thinking is included in the design process, project proponents should, as part of the EIS process, be required to include specific plans for co-locating agricultural enterprises or biodiversity measures within the solar array.”
The report says state-based, large scale solar planning approval processes have increasingly considered concerns about loss of productive agricultural land, and developers are seeking to alleviate these concerns by proposing agrivoltaic systems to ensure developed land maintains agricultural output.
For example, in NSW large scale solar developers are now generally required to undertake an agricultural impact assessment as part of their streamlined secretary’s environmental assessment requirements (SEARS), quantifying the economic effects of lost agricultural production.
To demonstrate a recognition of these effects and taking action to mitigate them, proponents are more often indicating an intent within their EIS to incorporate sheep grazing into their development.
The recommendation is one of seven policy proposals put forward by ARC’s Pursuing an agrivoltaic future in Australia report to address challenges of regional communities and landholders, and is a summary of consultation outcomes involving farmers, solar developers and renewable energy zone and transmission project coordinator EnergyCo.
Farm Renewables Consulting business owner, National Renewables in Agriculture Conference and Expo founder, and the report’s co-author Karin Stark said the report’s main takeaway is that renewables and farming can co-exist.
“They can do this in beneficial ways, but solar developments need to be well designed and planned from the start,” Stark told pv magazine.
The report emphasises co-locating food and energy systems presents a promising pathway for farmers, solar developers and governments, provided it is executed with careful consideration and integrated thinking.
“Adoption has been slow in Australia, because of knowledge gaps, technical and economic impediments, poor planning, and a lack of clear policy guidance at development stage have hindered uptake,” it says.
In advance of impending large scale developments, the report recommends the federal government provide $200,000 (USD 138,000) to design initial best practice guidelines for developers, operators, and farmers for successful agrivoltaics adoption, which includes standards for the different application cases.
The ARC report also recommends collaborating with the renewables industry to co-invest in ongoing essential research into agrivoltaics in different areas marked for solar development, and for different farming systems such as grazing, viticulture and horticulture.
Development of a coherent framework of carbon and biodiversity incentives to maximise best practice agrivoltaics adoption, across both broadacre and horticultural systems is also recommended.
Through the stakeholder discussions informing the report it was determined an intergovernmental agreement between federal and state governments could ensure a consistent framework across energy and agricultural agencies to determine a development’s impairment of agricultural activity and establish a threshold for land use, yield, soil, construction, water, synergies and system thinking, that may be referred to for receiving subsidies.
It also recommended the insurance sector cooperate to develop a workable and industry-wide grass height policy for solar facilities, recognising reduced risk during cooler months.
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