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.

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.