This provided photo shows a rendering of Portland-based company RUTE's agrivoltaic system design. The practice of agrivoltaics involves elevating solar panels above agricultural land so grazing and growing can continue beneath.
Courtesy RUTE
If farmers or ranchers want to put solar panels in their fields, they often have to give up agricultural production on that land. But the practice of “agrivoltaics” combines the two by elevating the panels, allowing grazing and growing to continue underneath. The cost of the steel needed to raise the panels above ground level often makes agrivoltaics prohibitive, but one Oregon company is looking to make the practice more accessible.
We’ll get an overview of agrivoltaics from Serkan Ates, an associate professor in Oregon State University’s department of animal and rangeland sciences. We’ll also hear from Portland-based RUTE Foundation Systems, which is working on a cable-stayed agrivoltaics system that the company says uses less steel and thereby lowers its cost. David McFeeters-Krone, a business development and government relations consultant with RUTE, joins to tell us more about the company’s technology.
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