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3 weeks ago
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The Future of Solar Includes Agrivoltaics
Agrivoltaics is reshaping the way solar developers, landowners, and communities think about renewable energy. By co-locating solar panels with agricultural activity, developers can reduce environmental impact while creating meaningful local benefits.
However, this new opportunity brings new complexity.
When your site isn’t just a solar array but also a functioning farm or pasture, your maintenance plan requires more complex coordination. That’s where field-ready O&M tools like 60Hertz become essential.
What Is Agrivoltaics?
Agrivoltaics is the practice of co-locating solar infrastructure with agricultural activity, allowing land to serve two purposes: energy generation and food or fiber production.
Instead of fencing off a solar site and leaving the ground beneath the panels underutilized, agrivoltaic design invites new life in: grazing livestock, growing crops, or restoring habitat.
Common agrivoltaic strategies include:
- Sheep grazing to manage vegetation naturally
- Pollinator-friendly meadows to restore biodiversity and reduce mowing
- High-value specialty crops like saffron, cannabis, or grapes, grown in partial shade
- Community gardens or rotational farming that engage local growers
This dual-use approach improves the return on land, reduces environmental disruption, and builds local support for solar projects, especially in rural and agricultural communities.
But agrivoltaics is more than just a sustainability concept. When done right, it delivers:
- Reduced water use due to lower evapotranspiration under panels
- Improved soil health from rotational grazing and cover crops
- Regenerative farming practices that align with decarbonization goals
- New revenue streams for landowners and solar operators
It’s a practical, scalable solution, but it only works if the solar O&M side of the equation is managed with the same care as the farming.
Why Agrivoltaics Demands Smarter Maintenance
Traditional O&M assumes solar sites are closed systems—limited access, little interference, and predictable service windows.
Agrivoltaics flips that.
Suddenly, your work orders need to account for:
- Grazing schedules (you can’t send a truck through a flock of sheep)
- Harvest timing for crops like grapes or saffron
- Coordinating with multiple stakeholders, including farmers and community partners
- Sensitive root zones and irrigation systems that can’t be disrupted
- Safety and biosecurity for livestock or edible crops
This level of cross-coordination requires a new class of tools.
How 60Hertz Supports Agrivoltaic Operations
60Hertz is designed to support distributed, dynamic, and community-integrated sites.
Here’s how our platform enables smarter agrivoltaic operations:
Smart Scheduling
O&M tasks can be scheduled with site-specific constraints in mind, like harvest windows, grazing rotations, or restricted-access days.
AI-Generated SOPs
Our custom SOPs reflect unique site factors: how to enter a site with livestock, when to delay mowing for pollinators, or how to service in-row components without disturbing crops.
Preventative Maintenance with Context
By staying ahead of component failure—and aligning it with the agricultural calendar—teams can avoid reactive maintenance that disrupts seasonal cycles or causes reputational damage with partners.
Field Visibility & Reporting
Real-time updates and digital sign-offs mean landowners and stakeholders stay informed and avoid confusion.
Agrivoltaics is Sustainable, But Only If It’s Managed Well
Projects that integrate land stewardship and energy generation reflect the best of what solar can be: community-oriented, climate-smart, and economically creative.
But if poor scheduling ruins a growing season, or if unchecked maintenance damages a crop, the trust—and potential—is lost.
If we want the promise of agrivoltaics to become a reality, we need software that understands the field, not just the array.
Looking Ahead: What’s Growing
With climate volatility, land scarcity, and local resistance to large-scale energy developments, agrivoltaics is a win-win solution. But it won’t scale without the tools to manage its complexity.
That’s where 60Hertz comes in.
If you’re building solar projects that support sheep, sunflowers, or specialty crops, your software should, too.
Let’s grow together.
Learn more about how 60Hertz supports agrivoltaic maintenance:
