As efforts to develop solar energy increase across the US, so does local opposition in rural communities where residents view solar energy as incompatible with local landscapes and identities. Recognizing the growing public opposition to solar energy resulting from landscape conflicts, many scholars have recommended the adoption of agrivoltaics. This co-utilization practice allows for agricultural and solar energy production to take place on the same plot of land as a solution to improve public support for solar energy development. This study uses landscape ideologies of the Western United States to examine how solar energy fits into changing Western landscapes and investigates whether agrivoltaics can be used as a tool to better align solar energy development with local landscapes. The study focuses on Pinal County, Arizona, a historically rural agricultural community simultaneously experiencing exurbanization, a decline in agricultural production, and an increase in proposed utility-scale solar energy projects. Using semi-structured interviews with farmers, government officials, and local business interests in combination with participant observation of local meetings about solar energy development, we find that a divergence in landscape ideologies between farmers and government officials in Pinal County significantly shapes opposition to solar energy. Agrivoltaics is perceived positively by government officials as a solution to public opposition toward solar energy development, however, farmers’ insufficient knowledge about agrivoltaics and a lack of current interest by solar developers to engage in agrivoltaic practices present critical barriers to the use of agrivoltaics as a land-use solution in Pinal County. We conclude with recommendations for increasing farmer participation in agrivoltaic policy and project development.

Karhoff, Quin E., Endres, A. Bryan, Guarino, Jessica L. & Swanson, Tyler J. Renewable Energy in Illinois: The Agrivoltaics Contribution. Southern Illinois University Law Review, 48. Summer 2024.

This letter aims to illuminate the legal issues and challenges surrounding agritourism liability and agritourism legal definitions, which are overlooked in the tourism literature. By demonstrating a lack of a clear and consistent agritourism definition and its impacts on liability exemption laws in the US, we discuss the legal and industry-wide complications surrounding an ambiguous definition and argue that this ambiguity may discourage agritourism expansion and operation sustainability, lead to inequity among various forms of agritourism businesses, and undermine agritourism visitors’ right.

In this Perspective, we review the clashing narratives around the role of hydropower in the United States' (US) energy future. In doing so, we reveal how hydropower is regarded as a keystone for the renewable energy transition but also viewed as a harmful technology with significant negative environmental and social impacts. These narratives can be seen in the contrasting future renewable energy visions of US government agencies, the hydropower industry, NGOs, and Tribal governments. We review critical lessons learned from past dam- and hydropower-related challenges to reimagine a just energy future for the US that bridges diverse sectors, jurisdictions, and values. We conclude by highlighting some key paths forward that might result in more resilient and adaptive water and energy systems as the country strives to decarbonize.

Amid a tumultuous legislative session, Congress has extended the current Farm Bill through fall 2024. The extension will provide some certainty to farmers while also giving lawmakers an additional year to deliberate the merits of the five-year, $700 billion funding package. This extra time allows lawmakers to more thoroughly consider innovations and investments that will shape the future of American agriculture – including “agrivoltaics,” a new practice that melds farming and solar energy.

Solar grazing is on the rise in the United States with dozens of new operations springing up across the country. However, with all of this growth in mind, an important question remains: if a grazier wants to enter the solar grazing market, how much will it cost, and how much revenue can they generate? Budget templates exist that can provide a grazier with guidelines, but hard data on grazier costs and revenues is more difficult to come by.

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Bock Agricultural Law & Policy Program set out to answer this question as a project through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s ASTRO InSPIRE Seed Grant Program. Undergraduate students Tyler Swanson and Quin Karhoff, supported by Post-Doctoral Researcher Jessica Guarino and Professor A. Bryan Endres, conducted a survey of American solar grazing practitioners to gather data on common capital and labor investments, as well as operation sizes and revenue streams. The researchers hope that the findings of the survey will help graziers interested in entering the solar grazing market better understand what costs and revenues they can expect and contribute to more accurate budget tools for potential solar graziers. The results of the survey are included in their fact sheet The Economics of Solar Grazing.

Agriculture is a staple of American life. While metropolitan regions exist throughout the nation, it rarely takes more than an hour of driving to find yourself on a road surrounded by fields of grain, livestock, or other commodities that feed and clothe the world. Yet, increasingly, you may find yourself on a similar road surrounded by a field harvesting a far different product: solar energy. At first glance, an environmentally minded traveler may view solar fields as an encouraging sign of a brighter future independent of fossil fuels; however, this perception misses a critical insight into the tensions and conflicts that went into the conversion of that field from agricultural land to a solar site.

Guarino, J. & Swanson, T. “Agrivoltaics in Illinois: A Regulatory and Policy Guide.” AgriSolar Clearinghouse. https://www.agrisolarclearinghouse.org/the-illinois-agrivoltaics regulatory-and-policy-guide-analyzes-state-and-local-laws/. February 1, 2023.

In recent years, tensions have grown in rural communities in response to rapid development of utility-scale solar energy production facilities over the proper use of rural land, particularly between agricultural and solar energy production. Ongoing land use tension between agriculture and solar energy production has motivated some landowners to co-locate solar panels and crops or livestock on the same plot of land in a process called agrivoltaics. The evolution of agrivoltaics from an experimental land use strategy to a viable diversification method for farmers necessitates an analysis of existing zoning laws, tax policies, and contractual agreements that farmers must abide by—and which may inhibit the full development of agrivoltaics into an industry. This article analyzes existing agrivoltaics policy by reviewing the history of how agricultural land use has shifted over time as well as by examining existing zoning and taxation laws for agrivoltaics. Further, this article applies the evidence analyzed to the rapidly growing practice of solar grazing, a subfield of agrivoltaics that involves farmers grazing sheep and other livestock on utility-scale solar energy facilities. The article reviews existing grazing contracts and best practices from adjacent grazing industries to offer regulatory insights for the developing agrivoltaics industry. The article concludes by positing further research questions and proposing legislative reforms that may provide a friendlier legal landscape for agrivoltaics and other dual-use operations at the nexus of agriculture and renewable energy.

Swanson, T. “Crypto's Dark Secret.” Q Magazine, (4):2. https://q.sustainability.illinois.edu/cryptos-dark-secret/. February 23, 2022.

Guarino, J., R. Endres, T. Swanson and B. Endres. “Defining the Bounds of Booming Agritourism.” farmdoc daily (12):19, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, February 14, 2022.

Guarino, J., R. Endres, T. Swanson and B. Endres. "It’s Pumpkin Patch Season and Agritourism is Booming—But What Exactly is Agritourism?." farmdoc daily (11):152, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, November 4, 2021.