Resources
The Agrivoltaic Story
Agrivoltaics is part of a much bigger story about the future of American agriculture. Across the country, farmers and rural communities are navigating changing markets, rising costs, land pressures, and an evolving energy landscape. The resources below explore these challenges through research, policy, and personal stories — and offer a window into how agrivoltaics can create new opportunities to strengthen farm viability and keep agricultural land working.
Featured
Barn Talk: Greg Gunthorp on Solar Grazing at Scale
Gunthorp Farms — Indiana
MAC board member Greg Gunthorp joins Barn Talk to share his experience grazing livestock across more than 1,000 acres of prime solar pasture in Indiana — new income streams, improved land stewardship, and what commercial-scale solar grazing actually looks like on the ground.
The Real Reason Farmers Are Turning to Solar
SunCast with Nico Johnson — Rebekah Pierce
MAC partner Rebekah Pierce — author of Agri-Energy: Growing Power, Growing Food — examines the real economics of solar grazing, why "prime farmland" is misunderstood in policy debates, and what it takes to scale dual-use systems.
Two Harvests, One Field: Hadley Farm Shows Off Agrivoltaics
Scott Merzbach — Daily Hampshire Gazette
Sweet corn grows beneath a 445-kilowatt solar array at Joe Czajkowski Farm — now in its fourth year — producing yields at 80% of open-field output with no loss in quality. Concrete proof that ag-solar can make farms more viable without taking land out of food production.
More Reading & Listening
KBIA / The Next Harvest · October 1, 2025 · Jana Rose Schleis
Solar Arrays Supply Shade and Land for Midwest Farmers
The field report that sparked the Science Friday conversation — following a Missouri herb farmer, a Minnesota immigrant farming cooperative, and the American Solar Grazing Association's push to expand agrivoltaic grazing to one million acres.
Science Friday · February 3, 2026 · Jana Rose Schleis & Dr. Madhu Khanna
The Growing Experiment of Putting Solar Panels on Farmland
Host Ira Flatow explores why sheep grazing is agrivoltaics' biggest success story, what it will take to scale to commodity crops, and how co-locating food and energy production can ease community opposition to solar development in rural America.
WBUR Here & Now · May 19, 2026 · Chris Bentley
There's a Solar Boom in Rural America. Can Agriculture and Renewable Energy Share the Land?
A ground-level look at agrivoltaics across Illinois and the Midwest — sheep graziers, solar developers, and farm bureau leaders navigating the intersection of renewable energy and agriculture, with voices from the University of Illinois, Pivot Energy, and Illinois Solar Grazing.
Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, UPenn · July 13, 2026 · Tom Daniels & Vivian Whoriskey
Agrivoltaics Ordinances for Greater Deployment of Solar with Agriculture
With 166 county governments having adopted restrictions or bans on solar development, this policy digest examines how local governments can draft ordinances that actively favor agrivoltaics — using lot-coverage bonuses, prime farmland waivers, and agricultural production requirements to incentivize dual-use projects.