It could be a match made in heaven – solar panels above agricultural fields can create clean energy, save valuable land and might even benefit crops. Where better to test it out than Israel?
Growing crops under solar panels – called “agrivoltaics” or “agri-photovoltaics” – is a promising solution for using the same plot of land to both feed the world’s growing population and provide sustainable energy.
“This increases land-use efficiency, as it lets solar farms and agriculture share ground, rather than making them compete against one another,” according to the World Economic Forum.
Agrivoltaic experiments in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa over the past decade indicate that putting PV panels over farms can reduce water consumption; protect crops from over-exposure to sun radiation; lessen the impact of hail, wind and rain; improve power generation in hot, dry places; and of course provide more income to farmers.
“As a country globally recognized for solar and agricultural innovation, it’s natural for Israel to take the lead in APV [agri-photovoltaics],” said David Zigdon, CEO of the MIGAL Galilee Research Institute of the Israeli Innovation, Science and Technology Ministry.
MIGAL is joining the Green Energy Association of Israel in leading the Israeli Climate Forum’s planned Israel APV Steering Committee.
Zigdon said studies indicate that agrivoltaics installed on just 1% of arable land could fill global electricity needs.
“We are excited about agrivoltaics’ potential to improve land use, scale the production of clean energy and reduce food shortages – especially given the growing challenges facing agriculture in so many regions.”
More than 600 scientists, farmers, entrepreneurs and officials from Israel, Japan, Germany, France and the United States attended the second annual SunnySide APV Summit hosted in Israel by MIGAL and Germany’s Fraunhofer Research Institute in March.
There, MIGAL launched the world’s first Agri-Photovoltaics Knowledge Center to collect and share research with farmers, energy developers and policymakers, says Ori Ben Herzel, VP of value creation for MIGAL.
“If we have information from Italy about growing apples, for example, it will be totally different in Israel so we need to learn it from the beginning,” Ben Herzel tells ISRAEL21c.