The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) voted to award 16 projects totaling 52.06 MW in the first solicitation of its Dual-Use Pilot Agrivoltaics program.
“This pilot dual-use program will enable us to support New Jersey farmers in making their operations more profitable while adding capacity to the grid,” said NJBPU President Ben Hertz-Shargel. “It ensures farmland remains in active agricultural or horticultural production while enhancing the value of established farming practices. Combining that with new clean electric supply for the grid represents a true win-win for the Garden State.”
Credit: Encore Renewable Energy
Agrivoltaics or dual-use solar places photovoltaic panels above or among crops, grazing areas or other agricultural operations rather than removing farmland from production entirely. The 16 pilot projects, located on farms in Atlantic, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Mercer, Monmouth, Salem and Warren Counties, will pair solar generation with crops such as soybeans, hay, grains, vegetables and fruits, as well as livestock production.
Established under the Dual-Use Solar Energy Act of 2021, the program is being implemented by NJBPU in cooperation with the New Jersey Dept. of Agriculture, the Dept. of Environmental Protection, the State Agriculture Development Committee, and Rutgers University’s Agrivoltaics Program.
“When we passed the Dual-Use Solar Energy Act, this is exactly the progress we hoped to see: New Jersey farmers producing food and clean power on the same acre of land,” said Senator Bob Smith. “These 16 projects prove we don’t have to choose between keeping farmland in active production and building the generation capacity our state needs — we can have both. Farmers have always been stewards of the land, and now they can help power New Jersey’s clean-energy future while strengthening their own bottom line.”
The pilot may support up to 200 MW over three years, with individual projects generally limited to a maximum size of 10 MW. Projects must be located on unpreserved farmland already in active agricultural or horticultural use, and eligible teams must include a landowner, farmer and solar operator, with farmers participating meaningfully in project planning and operation.
The program received strong early interest: NJBPU’s first solicitation received 33 preliminary proposals totaling about 140 MW. Lessons from the full pilot will inform how New Jersey establishes a permanent agrivoltaics program.
News item from NJBPU
Great article on this topic, however it’s amazing the amount of people are against PV on farm land. A good amount of them don’t want anything renewable. They just want to see the classic farm fields. I would explain to some of these people. What do you think? There’s a solar field on farmland? That is because the farmers can’t make enough money. Talk to your legislatures about the farm bill bypassing a small farmers. Anyway I think it’s a very good idea that they use the land for dual use harvesting sunshine for both photosynthesis and photovoltaics. The farmer needs to use his land to harvest what he can and the solar energy is the electricity that powers his form. I see nothing wrong with it. One thing the industry does have to do is catch up on recycling. One of the anti-solar people says the landfills are full of solar panels in there. I understand it’s quite a bit of that. Once the recycling problem is done, we have less resistance. Thank you for a well done article.