For what and for whom? A political ecology of agrivoltaics in the Southwestern United States

Authors: Carrie Seay-Fleming, Tyler Swanson, Andrea K. Gerlak

Journal: Sustainability Science

Published: April 2025

Abstract:

Agrivoltaics, the practice of colocating agriculture and solar panels, is gaining traction as a proposed solution to solar siting conflicts. At the same time, a growing body of social science research tends to emphasize questions about “social acceptance”, aimed at identifying barriers to scaling up agrivoltaics. There remains, however, a lack of understanding about the socioenvironmental implications of agrivoltaics, and how these benefits and hazards might be experienced differently by different groups and in particular socio-spatial contexts. In this research, we use a political ecology approach to demonstrate how the renewables-driven land transformation in the American Southwest is shaped by a complex entanglement of site-specific biological and sociopolitical factors. We focus on one rural, agricultural county in Central Arizona where solar siting has been rapidly expanding on existing farmland, with local opposition increasing, and agrivoltaics has been proposed as a potential solution to the siting conflict. Drawing on interviews and participant observation, we demonstrate how pre-existing legacies of extraction, land financialization, and rural transformation shape site-specific agri-solar–land dynamics. We critique the assumption that ecological conditions alone—like water scarcity—create suitable conditions for agrivoltaics, and instead, emphasize the importance of socio-material and sociopolitical conditions. Lastly, we illustrate how AV is used discursively to circumscribe public debate about USSE and legitimize the acquisition of farmland. This paper adds to a growing body of critical social science scholarship on agrivoltaics, highlighting the multiplicity of goals the technology may serve and the importance of getting agrivoltaics right.