In 2019, researchers at Purdue University in Indiana began studying whether corn, soybeans, and solar panels could successfully share the same farmland. Instead of treating agriculture and solar energy as competing land uses, they established an agrivoltaics research field where crops were grown beneath and around photovoltaic panels. After four years of monitoring corn yields, the study found that even the most shaded plots experienced an average yield loss of only 7.7 percent, suggesting that carefully designed agrivoltaic systems can support both food and energy production.
A field designed to share sunlight
