The one-hour seminar was digital, nevertheless it was a homecoming for Michael Roth.
A 2015 graduate, Roth “returned” to Washington & Jefferson School on Wednesday to discuss “agrisolar” – a discipline the place agricultural manufacturing and photovoltaic power era complement one another.
His presentation – titled “And on His Farm He Has … a Photovoltaic System? The place Photo voltaic And Farming Meet” – a part of the lecture collection organized by W&J’s Heart for Power Coverage and Administration.
Roth is the director of Conservation and Innovation with the state Division of Agriculture, and identified a number of instances throughout the afternoon webinar that the ag trade is robust and essential within the Keystone State. He cited a state report that concluded that farming contributes $132.5 billion a yr to Pennsylvania’s financial system and helps practically 600,000 jobs that pay practically $33 billion.
Though there are issues about meals safety, local weather change and the viability of farms, challenges that may be alleviated by working a farm together with a photo voltaic power supply.
“Pennsylvania could be very blessed,” Roth mentioned, including that the state is No. And it is among the leaders in dairy. “We now have 40 inches of rain a yr, however we do not see excessive climate like California,” the place farming can also be large.
Agrisolar – also called dual-use photo voltaic, or low-impact photo voltaic – is well-liked in Europe and a quickly rising dynamic in the US, similar to the photo voltaic sector itself. Planning is paramount on this discipline, the place vegetation and/or animals should be appropriate with photo voltaic. This can embody vegetation that don’t tolerate shade, reminiscent of lettuce, and different vegetation, together with some kinds of tomatoes.
Roth mentioned appropriate animals would come with apiaries, bees, chickens, cows and sheep. Rotational grazing – containing and shifting animals on pastures – improves the well being of the soil, vegetation and animals.
Agrisolar may cut back the landowner’s backside line. “Photo voltaic has confirmed to be a superb funding for poultry farmers,” says Roth, explaining that air flow wants – and prices – will be considerably diminished. Dairy farmers can profit from the addition of photo voltaic, which may cut back warmth stress in cows and enhance milk manufacturing.
Photo voltaic panels, he mentioned, are “much less harmful” in an agricultural space as a result of they’re surrounded by glass, which is immune to ultraviolet gentle and excessive temperatures from the total solar.
The W&J alum additionally says that “making wine is unquestionably higher with photo voltaic. You may shield the fruit.”
Photo voltaic tasks are available in two types in Pennsylvania: web metered, the place panels are usually put in on houses or companies, enabling customers to be paid for the power they supply to the grid; and utility scale, which may generate greater than 1 megawatt of photo voltaic power.
Neighborhood photo voltaic, a undertaking or buy program that advantages a number of prospects in a geographic space, is out there in different states, however not within the Keystone State. There’s a invoice earlier than the state Home, HB 1555, that, if handed by the Home and Senate and signed by the governor, would permit neighborhood photo voltaic. The invoice, nonetheless, has not been acted upon since June 2021.
“That will permit rural communities in, say, Washington County to begin a neighborhood photo voltaic undertaking subsequent door,” Roth mentioned.
