Win-win or window dressing? Opportunity and opposition to agrivoltaics in the United States

Competition for sunny, flat, and productive U.S. farmland is intensifying as utility-scale solar expands to meet growing energy needs. While agrivoltaics - the dual-use of land for both agriculture and solar energy - present a potential solution to this land-use conflict, understanding of their regional suitability and acceptability is limited. We examined the public discourse on agrivoltaics, analyzing 395 U.S. news media articles published since 2019, including discussion of 66 proposed and operating projects across 23 states. Three dominant framings were identified: agrivoltaics as a ‘win-win’ for farmers and local economies, a threat to farming and the rural community, and as an imperfect compromise. The prevalence of these framings across the U.S. depended in part on the plausibility of agricultural benefits: favorable coverage of agrivoltaics in hot western states, where shade can boost yields of high-value crops and reduce water use, contrasted with skepticism of large ‘solar grazing’ projects in the northeastern states, where agricultural benefits were less clear. We combined this qualitative analysis with a quantitative ‘Opportunity Index’ composed of 13 sub-indicators that mapped where agrivoltaics provide local co-benefits. The regional density of news media sentiment was used to constrain the weights of the sub-indicators in the Index. Together, these methods were used to identify regions of high potential suitability, explore the conditions that may support or hinder the development of social license, and provide guidance for policymakers and developers on the project features and engagement strategies that appear aligned with community acceptance.