The idea seems to make sense: Combine solar energy collection with modern-day farming.
It’s why Rutgers cut the ribbon on a $1.6 million ‘agrivoltaic’ project on Cook Campus Monday – a cutting-edge initiative that features nearly 400 solar panels that not only are generating electricity but have been engineered to allow farmers to use the space between the arrays for various crops.
The project, the first-ever built in New Jersey, was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office. Becca Jones-Albertus, the director of SETO, was on hand for the ceremony.
Rutgers officials feel the agrivoltaics project has developed strategies that enable agrivoltaics to thrive within diversified agricultural landscapes, protecting farmers and farmland while contributing to clean energy goals. The project is currently growing animal forage before introducing sheep to the land sometime next year.
Rutgers officials feel the project is an excellent opportunity to study the multiple benefits of renewable energy on cultivated land, like new sources of revenue for farmers. The results of this research will be used to produce tools, resources, and training programs for farmers and undergraduate programs interested in developing agrivoltaics in the northeast region.
Jones-Albertus toured the facility with State Sen. Bob Smith (D-Piscataway), N.J. Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Wengryn, Mariam Abdou, a commissioner of the BPU, Rutgers Agrivoltaics Program Lead, David Specca and Laura Lawson, Rutgers’ executive dean of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.
