Can farming and solar panels work together? Madison County project is trying to find out

MECHANICSBURG − A new solar farm in Madison County is tackling the longstanding complaint that the growing number of utility-sized solar projects in Ohio are taking critical farmland out of production.

Renewable energy company Savion has opened Madison Fields Solar Farm, a 180-megawatt project capable of generating enough power to run 38,000 homes. The farm will also test on whether it is possible to grow crops between and around the rows of 400,000 solar panels on about 1,000 acres of land in Pike Township.

"Madison Fields is one of the first operating units of a utility-scale solar project of its size to emphasize the fundamental role of agriculture in the transition to clean energy," Scott Zeimetz, Savion's chief development officer, told a crowd at a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the solar farm.

Kansas City, Missouri-based Savion, in conjunction with Ohio State University, is testing a variety of crops at the site, including wheat, soybeans, alfalfa, corn, hay mixes and pollinating plants. The study also includes soil health and the use of agricultural equipment to navigate the narrow lanes between the rows of solar panels.

If vegetation has become firmly established, sheep may be brought in as soon as the new year to graze.

"Savion is striving to be a leader in this field and sees agrivoltaics as a way of the future and a bridge between agriculture and solar energy and the local communities we operate,’’ Zeinmetz said, using the term of integrating farming and solar farms.

Construction of Madison Fields began in December 2022 and finished last December.

It is the first solar project Savion has developed, constructed and operated. Shell New Energies U.S., a subsidiary of European oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, bought Savion in December 2021.

Savion partners with Ohio State on Madison Fields

Savion has a subsidiary called Between the Rows dedicated to investigating whether integrating farming on utility-size solar farms can work.

It partnered with Ohio State to study on a 2-acre site in northwest Ohio where alfalfa, hay and soybeans were being grown around solar panels.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Ohio State a $1.8 million grant to study the concept at Madison Plains.

"Big picture: Can we grow and raise crops under solar panels?" asked Scott Shearer, professor and chair of the Department of Food, Agriculture & Biological Engineering at Ohio State.

Savion is working with Ohio State to expand the Molly Caren Agricultural Center in London, a 2,100-acre site that hosts the Farm Science Review each September, into a national training center to teach farmers how to farm successfully around solar panels. It also wants to work with Tolles Career and Tech Center close to Plain City to establish a program that could help Madison County become a regional hub for training workers in solar power and agrivoltaics.

Will agrivoltaics work?

The introduction of agrivoltaics at Madison Fields comes during a building boom for solar farms in Ohio.

There are about 60 farms in some stage of development in the state, according to state regulators. Projects approved several years ago, like Madison Fields, are coming online.

Add it all up, and the projects take up about 95,000 acres in the state. The state has about 13.1 million acres of farmland in 2022, down about 400,000 acres from the prior year, meaning far more farmland is being lost to projects other than solar farms.

Shearer said it would likely take at least two or three years of study to determine whether growing crops at Madison Fields will pay off.

"We're starting down the road. We're learning a lot of things," he said.

Savion also wants to incorporate agrivoltaics into its neighboring Oak Run project, which it is developing in Madison County south of Madison Plains. State regulators signed off on the project in March.

It is far bigger than Madison Fields, costing at least $1 billion and covering 6,050 acres of farmland, making it one of the biggest in the country.

The 800 megawatts of power to be generated by the project is the biggest in the state of any solar farm.

Savion has promised to turn Oak Run into the largest agrivoltaic program in the country. The company will plant crops and graze livestock in the rows of the solar panels and around the perimeter of the project.

In its first year of operation, Oak Run must graze at least 1,000 sheep and grow crops on 2,000 acres. State regulators said when they approved the project that within eight years of operation, at least 70% of the farmable project area, or at least 4,000 acres, must include agrivoltaics.

Who is buying the power from Madison Fields?

Amazon's data center operations in central Ohio run entirely on renewable energy, and the e-commerce giant backs about two dozen renewable energy projects in the state, including Madison Fields.

“Amazon is proud to enable solar and wind projects in Ohio, which have helped Amazon reach its 100% renewable energy goal, and it's exciting to see how agriculture experts are working with the site developers, Ohio State University and Savion to maximize the benefits of the investment for the community we’re serving," said Amazon's Merle Madrid.

Amazon is also buying the power from the Fox Squirrel solar project that just completed its first phase in southern Madison County. After Oak Run, Fox Squirrel is the second biggest project in the state.

mawilliams@dispatch.com

@BizMarkWilliams

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Madison Fields Solar Farm to test agrivoltaic farming on solar farms