Solar sharing with agriculture is an ambitious project that takes a bold step to address two challenges together: increasing renewable energy capacity while supporting local farmers and national food security.
To benefit society and minimise environmental damage, Norway needs to meet climate goals, advance energy security and boost food security. A diverse renewable energy mix including solar can meet the nation’s growing energy demand while reducing reliance on pollution-emitting fossil fuels, but this can conflict with other land uses such as farming. Protecting farmland must therefore be a goal while renewable energy capacities are increased.
Agrivoltaics offers a smart solution to advance energy and food security together by implementing solar in such a way that farming is maintained. The technology has been demonstrated across Europe and other continents, but it is yet to be fully explored in Norway.
The project aims to provide the evidence needed to support land use decision-making by investigating how agrivoltaics work within Norwegian farming conditions.
The project will assess the energy and agriculture performance, monitor microclimate impacts, explore how agronomical practices can operate within agrivoltaic systems, determine the technical and economic potential across Norway, and understand the stakeholder perspectives and needs from such systems. Two pilot sites are already running in Trøndelag and Ås, with more planned. The project also connects with the EnviSol initiative to study environmental impacts.
The project is led by SINTEF Industry, with NMBU, NTNU, SINTEF Digital and seven industry partners.