Project to study side-by-side food, solar energy production

A University of Alaska Fairbanks research team wants to find out how well one plot of Alaska land can produce both solar power and vegetables.

Chris Pike, with UAF’s Alaska Center for Energy and Power, leads the team. Members will study four types of crops on land shared with a new 8.5-megawatt solar photovoltaic array being developed in Houston, Alaska. To fund the work, the team received $1.3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Foundational Agrivoltaic Research for Megawatt Scale program.

Vegetables, peonies, forage and berries native to Alaska will grow between rows of modules in the array, which will be the largest solar installation in the state.

Researchers call it “agrivoltaics.”

“This project will create agrivoltaic best practices in northern climates,” said Pike, a research engineer at ACEP. He said the idea is to “find approaches to maximize solar energy and agriculture production production and minimize operations and maintenance costs.”

“If agrivoltaics can provide economic opportunity to farmers and solar developers in Alaska, the likelihood of success elsewhere is high,” Pike said.

Renewable IPP, an Alaska company that built and operates a large solar operation in nearby Willow, will develop the solar array. Alaska Pacific University’s Spring Creek Farm in Palmer will train agricultural technicians and advise the team on agricultural plot development.

At UAF, researchers Jessie Young-Robertson and Glenna Gannon, with the Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension, will monitor the crops’ health and biomass and coordinate with farmers to determine the best agricultural practices.

“This project allows us to evaluate the feasibility of high-latitude agrivoltaics,” Gannon said. “It’s also an opportunity for addressing high energy costs and food security for the state of Alaska.”

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Chris Pike at cpike6@alaska.edu.

096-23