Search
Items tagged with: agrivoltaics
š¾ Japan's first 2 MW agrivoltaic plant is running above a working rice paddy in Tokushima, and its main trick is knowing when to get out of the way.
April to August the single-axis trackers hold the panels edge-on to the sun so the rice below keeps its light. The backside of the bifacial glass catches light bouncing off the flooded paddy to claw back some output. After harvest the panels square up and it runs as a normal solar farm until spring.
There's also typhoon mode: strong wind folds the rows into a figure-eight so the storm has nothing flat to grab.
It's a 40x scale-up of a 45 kW pilot in Chiba where two seasons of rice matched open-field yield and quality. Idemitsu estimates solar over 5% of Japan's farmland would double the country's installed capacity.
First harvest under the full 2 MW array lands in the next few weeks.
pv magazine: pv-magazine.com/2026/02/19/ideā¦
Nikkei Asia: asia.nikkei.com/business/energā¦
Idemitsu: idemitsu.com/en/2050future/actā¦
Idemitsu switches on 2 MW of solar above rice paddy - pv magazine Global
Japanese petroleum company Idemitsu Kosan has announced its 2 MW agricultural solar power plant, installed 3.8 meters above a rice paddy, has begun operating.Patrick Jowett (pv magazine Global)
š A farm that cuts its electricity bill by 74% AND gives its chickens shade from summer heat?
Handsome Brook Farms, an organic pasture-raised egg producer in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, just finished 9 ground-mounted solar projects totaling 579.7 kW across its farms. One farmer saw a 74.23% drop in his annual electric bill with 100% uptime since day one.
The ground-mounted panels pull double duty: clean power on top, shade for the hens below. The chickens roam between the arrays and the barn, staying cooler during intense summer heat.
The economics are real too. With federal tax credits, accelerated depreciation, and a USDA REAP grant, the payback is about 3 years. After that, power is basically free for the 25-year warranty period.
It offsets about 668 metric tons of CO2 annually. Not bad for a bunch of chickens and some panels.
Read more:
solarpowerworldonline.com/2026ā¦
wattagnet.com/egg/article/1583ā¦
#solar #agriculture #agrivoltaics
Emergent Solar installs nine on-farm solar projects for organic egg farms
Emergent Solar EnergyĀ has completed nine on-site solar projects forĀ Handsome Brook Farms, a producer of organic pasture-raised and free-range eggs.Kelly Pickerel (Solar Power World)
