This story was initially revealed within the Maine Monitor.
Paul Sweetland brings a bucket-like object to work on a blueberry farm in Rockport — to not gather Maine’s trademark fruit, however to guard his head.
That’s as a result of this farm is a bit of uncommon: Hanging from the slim rows of untamed blueberries are 8-foot-tall photo voltaic panels. It’s a farm and an influence plant, which implies he wants a tough hat.
“Some of the panels are above my head and a few are on the degree of my head. Some attain near my waist. But the edges of the panels are in order that if I do not put on a tough hat, it may I’m going to harm myself,” Sweetland stated. The Maine Monitor.
The exhausting hat is a small inconvenience for Sweetland, however symbolic of a broader query that researchers at this farm are learning: How can agricultural lands assist crops and photo voltaic panels with out hurt the road of one other?
Solar builders and agricultural researchers from the University of Maine have been learning the difficulty for 2 years at this 12-acre, four-megawatt mission in Rockport.
The so-called dual-use array, constructed by Boston-based BlueWave Solar, is operated by Navisun, a Massachusetts solar energy producer that distributes electrical energy to Central Maine Power’s vitality grid. Sweetland manages the blueberry farms for the landowner, who leases the land to Navisun and receives a share of the blueberry income.
When the Rockport mission was launched in 2021, it was acknowledged as the most important dual-use photo voltaic farm within the nation, and was seen as a litmus check for the feasibility of future initiatives.
The continued progress of these tasks comes as Maine pursues two formidable renewable vitality targets and seeks to protect agricultural lands for native meals manufacturing. The state hopes to depend on state producers for 30 % of meals consumption in 2030, up from 10 % in 2020.
But Maine has restricted lands appropriate for agriculture, The Monitor beforehand reported, and a big a part of photo voltaic tasks are on agriculturally necessary land, suggesting the necessity for agrivoltaics, which is using land for agriculture and solar energy technology.
For Lily Calderwood, a wild blueberry specialist on the University of Maine, a preliminary takeaway from the Rockport examine is that the best way the photo voltaic array is configured could make farming tough and restrict blueberry manufacturing.
In addition to carrying exhausting hats, farm staff should use smaller, specialised gear to entry the bushes. Sweetland selected a brand new four-wheeler as a substitute of a tractor, for instance, and a lot of the work within the bushes was carried out by hand.
The massive query is whether or not the blueberry bushes will produce sufficient to make a revenue. After analyzing the rising season in 2022, Calderwood stated it would not look good; in terms of berries, the prices outweigh the advantages.
Shade from photo voltaic panels considerably reduces blueberry yield. Bushes planted within the shaded areas beneath the photo voltaic panels produced solely 9 % extra blueberries in comparison with bushes planted in rows between the panels.
Wild blueberries “can maintain some shade, as a result of in the event that they develop within the woods they’re going to be shaded and so they’ll nonetheless develop,” Calderwood stated. But when daylight ranges drop too low, blueberries put extra vitality into producing leaves as a substitute of fruit, to allow them to seize the little gentle that may filter down into the soil.
Bushes with extra leaves want extra pruning, Calderwood stated, noting that shaded areas additionally see extra weeds and a better incidence of illness.
“At the top of the day, it is not economical for a blueberry farmer to do twin use proper now due to the shading and all of those logistics,” Calderwood stated. “They cannot even make cash on the farm as a result of (the crops) are shaded.”
However, there are vivid sides to the findings.
The important goal of the examine was to find out what impact the set up of photo voltaic panels has on blueberry crops. To measure this, researchers labored with BlueWave to designate three areas with completely different ranges of constructing warning.
In the “commonplace” space, no precautions are taken; within the “aware” space, building and foot visitors are restricted, and gear can solely rotate 90 levels; within the “cautious” space, protecting covers are positioned on the blueberry crops, with extra limitations on gear rotation and foot visitors.
Although the disturbance was clear at first, Calderwood and Sweetland say it is now tough to inform which space obtained which therapy.
“We did not see any statistical distinction between the therapies, which means the blueberry was well-cured,” Calderwood stated.
He suspects that as a result of the development didn’t disturb the soil profile on the depth of the blueberry roots, leaving the plant and soil intact.
“The level is to see the impression of the set up,” Calderwood stated. “So in that respect, it is good. The set up of all this massive gear did not have a huge impact on the farm itself, however the shade modified the entire system.
The mission’s backers are inspired by the preliminary outcomes, which they are saying will assist information comparable tasks they pursue in Maine and elsewhere.
Jesse Robertson-DuBois, director of sustainable photo voltaic growth for BlueWave, says his firm’s important concern is the situation of the crops throughout building.
“What we’re attempting to do is defend the crop, maintain perennial crops alive, after which be taught … the results of shading and the results of constructing on that design,” stated Robertson- DuBois.
BlueWave is already utilizing Rockport’s outcomes to information a blueberry mission in Massachusetts.
The firm plans to introduce wider arrays and construct photo voltaic panels on an axis that permits them to pivot and observe the solar all through the day, offering extra gentle for crops.
One of Calderwood’s key takeaways is that future tasks ought to contemplate which exercise comes first: photo voltaic vitality manufacturing or agriculture.
Robertson-DuBois stated constructing a photo voltaic farm appropriate for agriculture is dearer than different photo voltaic tasks: It requires extra cabling to maneuver the modules farther aside and taller mounts to offer the mags room. – farmer.
“All of this can add exhausting prices to the mission, even allocating any operational efficiencies and that type of factor,” he stated, noting that state incentives will assist offset the extra prices.
Massachusetts is forward of Maine on this division, Robertson-DuBois stated. Massachusetts affords certified agrivoltaics tasks a base compensation fee of $0.14 to $0.26 per kilowatt hour of electrical energy produced.
“We do not have something like that in Maine at this level,” he stated. “So we’re type of caught.”
In 2022, an agricultural stakeholder group really useful that Maine modify tax incentives for dual-use tasks and streamline the allowing course of.
BlueWave remains to be engaged on dual-use photo voltaic tasks in Maine, however as a substitute of specializing in crop manufacturing, it is engaged on plots the place the land beneath the panels is maintained as wildlife habitat or used for grazing. sheep.
“We see nice potential to maintain the land in agricultural manufacturing but additionally to attain these sorts of ecological advantages,” Robertson-DuBois stated.
The know-how is there, he says, however there are two important challenges.
One is monetary, realizing learn how to steadiness the prices of particular arrays. Another is cultural, navigating pushback from communities involved about photo voltaic farms obstructing their views.
“The query turns into, are people and communities keen to just accept the vitality transition, even when it leads to a change of their perspective? That is the crux of the difficulty,” Robertson stated. -DuBois.
From the attitude of the operator of the Rockport array, Navisun, the mission was successful – even when the blueberry fields weren’t as productive as on the open day.
Stephen Campbell, Navisun’s chief working officer, says the array’s vitality manufacturing is necessary and the coordination between Navisun, Sweetland, Calderwood and others engaged on the fields has taught the corporate learn how to talk that each operations are efficient and steady.
Rockport is the corporate’s first enterprise into agrivoltaics, and the significance of managing an lively energy plant simply ft above an agricultural area shouldn’t be misplaced, he stated. Certain security protocols should be adopted that farmers, like Sweetland carrying his exhausting hat, do not even have to consider.
“We need to come collectively in a scenario the place we each profit from it,” Campbell stated.
He added that in just a few many years down the road, when the photo voltaic arrays might be retired, that land might be opened to full-scale agricultural manufacturing once more. In the meantime, farmers can make cash by renting out their land to corporations like Navisun.
Researchers will proceed to observe the Rockport mission.
David Specca, who leads agrivoltaics analysis at Rutgers University, stated he’s to see what occurs on the farm just a few years from now.
“We’ll have to offer it a while and see what shakes out,” Specca stated. “Farmers are very resourceful. If there’s one thing that may have a low-tech repair, they’ll discover a means round it. “
The UMaine researchers will proceed to go to the Rockport farm as they end their remaining 12 months of examine. Since blueberries are a perennial plant and the final profit is available in 2022, they count on extra development this summer season.
“I feel it is a good place to start out,” Calderwood stated. “We realized lots from this expertise, from the info we collected but additionally from understanding how photo voltaic arrays are put in, and what number of completely different corporations are concerned.
“It’s a distinct world.”
Emmett Gartner covers accountability and rural communities in Maine as a Roy W. Howard Fellow by means of the Scripps Howard Fund. You can learn extra of his work within the Maine Monitor, which initially revealed this text.
