Dual harvest: Optimizing agrivoltaic systems for crop productivity and soil carbon sequestration

The global shift to renewable energy is essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but often competes with agricultural land use, threatening food security. Agrivoltaics (AVS), which refers to co-locating solar panels with crop production, offers a promising solution. This team proposes to investigate trade-offs between renewable energy generation, crop productivity, and soil carbon capture and storage, with primary research sites in the California Central Valley. This project will engage stakeholders and community members to design the parameters of an AVS field experiment and conduct a pilot experiment to validate the tools and methods needed to assess crop performance and AVS soil carbon capture.