Cultivating engagement: Public participation in agrivoltaics planning and design
Authors: Carrie Seay-Fleming, Tyler Swanson, Andrea K. Gerlak, Mitchell A. Pavao-Zuckerman, Holly Andrews, Karli Moore, Greg A. Barron-Gafford
Journal: Energy Research & Social Science
Published: September 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2025.104273
Abstract:
As the use of agrivoltaics—or the dual use of land for agricultural and photovoltaic energy production—increases around the world as a potential solution to the land-use tension between solar energy and agriculture, it becomes crucial to understand how local communities conceptualize and perceive the practice. Current literature finds a range of benefits that agrivoltaic systems can provide to farmers, but community acceptance of agrivoltaic projects is not inevitable. Due to the wide range of project scales, ownership structures, production outputs, and benefit distributions that agrivoltaic projects may include, discerning between aspects that contribute to local support and opposition is difficult. To that end, this Perspective presents a pilot workshop on community engagement in agrivoltaics organized by the authors as an avenue for improving awareness and understanding local expectations of agrivoltaic systems. Convening a range of local stakeholders including farmers, solar developers, government officials, food advocates, community leaders, and researchers, the workshop provided Arizona-specific information on agrivoltaics and gathered participant's opinions of and preferences for agrivoltaic systems through both individual surveys and group activities. The workshop participants identified a preference for small, farmer-owned agrivoltaic systems that provide food access and educational opportunities for host communities. We close with a recommendation that researchers adopt robust community engagement practices for agrivoltaics in their own communities, and gather information on community expectations surrounding the design, ownership, and benefits of agrivoltaic systems.