Assessing Agrivoltaic Suitability Across Agricultural Land in California Through Geospatial Analysis

Solar energy production, and thus photovoltaic (PV) installation, is on the rise in California. However, the land requirements pose a direct land conflict with agricultural land, as PV installations compete with, and often displace, existing agricultural land. Agrivoltaics, which collocate PV panels into agricultural crop production, have been proposed as a solution. Agrivoltaics can provide multiple additive and synergistic benefits for crop production, such as reduced drought stress, water conservation, increased food production, as well as preserving agricultural land while increasing solar energy production. However, there is limited research on agrivoltaic suitability and potential in California. This study assesses California’s agricultural land suitability for agrivoltaic integration using geospatial analysis of five suitability criteria: 1) crop type, 2) farmland productivity, 3) water stress, 4) insolation, and 5) proximity to electric substations. I found that there are significant areas of agricultural land, specifically the southern Central Valley, Central Coast and southern California, with high agrivoltaic suitability potential. Fresno, Tulare, Kern, Kings, Riverside and Madera counties have the largest area of highly suitable land for agrivoltaic integration. Given the trend of farmland displacement and California’s climate goals, which require increased PV installations, agrivoltaic integration in these areas could be a dual-use solution to this land conflict by meeting increasing demand for solar energy without compromising agricultural land and productivity.