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Recharge Jolt: Farmworker Appreciation Day
Today, we celebrate the farmworkers who provide America’s food, produce, and many of the fuels and materials that are helping us transition to a clean energy economy.
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Farmworkers Don’t Horse Around
 Jake Marley of Hyperion Systems LLC (left) and farmer Joe Czajkowski (right) stand underneath the solar array at Czajkowski Farm. Photo courtesy of Hyperion Systems and Czajkowski Farm
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Farmworkers across America are collaborating with clean energy industries to facilitate the deployment of renewable energy. One of the most promising methods is agrivoltaics, or the co-location of agricultural production—such as crop production, livestock grazing, and pollinator habitats—with solar panels.
As of this month, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has identified 566 agrivoltaic projects in the United States, which account for more than 10 gigawatts of renewable energy generation. One of those projects is in Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley, where the Czajkowski Farm cultivates broccoli beneath a solar array, improving the productivity of the land and cutting the farm’s energy costs.
Today, EERE extends its gratitude to farmers like Joe for their partnership in the clean energy transition. Read on to learn more about our work with American farmers!
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Fund Agrivoltaics Projects Until the Cows Come Home |
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The Foundational Agrivoltaic Research for Megawatt Scale (FARMS) funding program, funded by EERE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), examines how agrivoltaics can scale up to provide new economic opportunities to farmers, rural communities, and the solar industry. In December of 2022, the program selected six research projects that have since been working to overcome the barriers to wider deployment of large-scale solar agrivoltaics projects.
FARMS’ goal is to scale up the co-location of solar energy and agriculture and provide economic benefits to farmers and solar energy developers alike. The work funded through this program will help farmers pursue climate-smart, sustainable agriculture, which is beneficial to both farms and surrounding communities.
Discover more about FARMS’ funding and selectees.
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SETO has announced an upcoming prize opportunity for U.S. farmers, ranchers, landowners, and solar developers aiming to co-locate grazing and solar installation: the American-Made Large Animal and Solar System Operations (LASSO) Prize! The prize offers over $8 million to develop innovative co-location practices, build pilot sites, and share information on best practices, costs, and outcomes for energy and agriculture. To get funding for your innovative co-location practices and pilot sites, follow the prize and start building your team today.
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Explore the Easy, Breezy Benefits of Wind Energy |
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NREL’s Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) funding supports companies that build smaller sized wind turbines, especially in rural America’s farmland. To help these companies keep up with the rapid innovation required to reduce the costs of distributed wind projects, CIP helps make distributed wind energy technologies more cost-competitive and reliable.
Recently, CIP selected 12 American companies to help expand distributed wind, awarding them with cost-shared subcontracts and tech support. Since 2012, NREL has awarded $18.5 million total in DOE funding through CIP—learn more about the newest selectees and explore CIP’s history of supporting small- and medium-sized wind turbine manufacturers.
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Renewable energy, like wind and solar energy installations on farms, can be a key source of revenue for landowners, tax revenue for communities, and local employment—all huge benefits! According to a report from the Center for the New Energy Economy, agriculture is a big economic driver that can save farmers thousands per year.
By offsetting energy costs and providing additional revenue, renewable energy can help farmers meet their energy needs and lower their expenses at the same time. Take a look at the full report to learn more.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and DOE launched a new initiative to help USDA reach its goal of assisting 400 individual farmers across America with their smaller-scale wind project deployments. The Rural and Agricultural Income & Savings from Renewable Energy (RAISE) initiative will help USDA reach its goal of assisting 400 individual farmers across America deploy smaller-scale wind projects.
The RAISE initiative provides funding, technical assistance, and research and development opportunities for farmers. Thanks to this initiative, and the Inflation Reduction Act, USDA will ensure that more farmers and other rural businesses save money and earn income from distributed renewable energy technologies. Learn more about the RAISE initiative.
Pictured: USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack addresses attendees at the DWEA conference in Arlington, WA. Photo courtesy of J. Groleau
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Harvest All the Planning Resources You Need |
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 Pictured: Wind turbines at the Forward wind Energy Center in Fond du Lac and Dodge counties, Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of Ruth Baranowski, NREL
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USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) provides guaranteed loan financing and grant funding to agricultural producers and rural small businesses for renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements. If you need new energy efficient equipment or a system loan for agricultural production or processing, REAP has got you covered on that front too.
Contact your state rural development energy coordinator for more information and be sure to attend the webinar on August 20 to learn how REAP funding can help with your geothermal energy project.
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 A farmer harvests crops at Jack’s Solar Garden, a 1.2-megawatt community solar garden and agrivoltaics research site in Colorado. Photo courtesy of Werner Slocum, NREL
In collaboration with DOE, USDA hosted a series of virtual listening sessions about the benefits and challenges of clean energy projects on agricultural land and in rural communities. The purpose of the listening sessions was to gather feedback about what DOE and USDA can do to communicate the beneficial clean energy siting outcomes for farmers, rural Americans, and the renewable energy industry.
The listening sessions included four topics: government permitting and policy representatives, agricultural producers, stakeholders and the public, and clean energy developers. To find out more about the benefits of clean energy deployment and its impact on communities and public opinion, read the details—and check out DOE’s solar energy and agriculture co-location resources for farmers.
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The recently released 2023 Billion-Ton Report, developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory on behalf of EERE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office, shows that the United States could sustainably triple its production of biomass to more than 1 billion tons per year—and the agricultural industry has a leading role to play. Agriculture can help produce the biomass needed to reach sustainable aviation fuel goals, along with other uses of biofuels.
One billion tons of biomass could satisfy over 100% of projected demand for airplane fuel in the country, meaning that we have the resources to fully decarbonize the American aviation industry with sustainable aviation fuel. Learn more about how the agricultural industry can help tap into unused but available biomass resources, doubling the U.S. bioeconomy.
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 Watch this video about the AgriSolar Clearinghouse from the National Center for Appropriate Technology.
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As one of EERE’s many sustainable agriculture projects, the AgriSolar Clearinghouse is a public communications hub that connects businesses, land managers, and researchers to trusted resources, supporting co-located solar energy and sustainable agriculture. Co-location is a climate-friendly solution that saves water, produces healthy crops, provides income for existing farms, and improves community resilience—and that’s to name just a few benefits!
Explore the AgriSolar Clearinghouse page for information on co-location, relationship building, and open communication with the agrisolar community, and subscribe to their newsletter so you don’t miss the latest news.
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When you walk into the grocery store, do you ever think about the production, packaging, and transportation of what you’re buying? The food and drink industry is one of the top five energy-intensive greenhouse gas (GHG)-emitting industries in the country—and DOE is working on innovative solutions to produce the food we need while reducing GHG emissions.
EERE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) invested $2.5 million to support deployment of technology and business models for controlled environment agriculture (CEA), which supplements our current food production with indoor facilities that use less land and water than outdoor fields. Indoor farms also allow for year-round food production, creating local jobs and reducing transportation time and costs—so food can go right from the farm to your plate!
Explore IEDO’s CEA accelerator program to learn more, and check out DOE’s other initiatives in collaboration with USDA.
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