Illinois Team Tests the Costs, Benefits of Agrivoltaics across the Midwest
Category: SCAPES Agrivoltaics Project
New Site at the Energy Farm Will Accelerate Agrivoltaics Research
New Solar and Geothermal Installations Power Energy Farm
Among the University of Illinois’ most impressive living laboratories is the Energy Farm, a 320-acre farm plot on the South Farms supporting sustainability research. The farm is a testbed for a broad range of renewable energy sources; researchers across many disciplines are studying how to scale up and improve the effectiveness of these renewables, hoping to revolutionize sustainable energy production. Two recent research installations – an underground geothermal “battery” and an agrivoltaic solar array – are providing energy for the farm.
The Energy Farm was founded in 2007 as part of the Energy Biosciences Institute. Tim Mies, Director of Energy Farm Operations, explained that the original focus of the farm was analyzing second-generation biofuel crops and perennial grasses as a fuel source, which eventually expanded to renewable energy research as a whole. This bioenergy research has continued under the CABBI grant, funded by the Department of Energy.
By layering complementary energy technologies on top of each other, the farm generates much of its own energy. It features underground geothermal installations, bioenergy crops growing on the surface, and solar arrays sitting above the ground.
In late 2022, the Illinois Green Fund supported a geothermal research collaboration between the University of Illinois and the Oak Ridge National Lab, which led to the installation of an underground geothermal battery (UTB) at the Energy Farm. This novel geothermal system features a water reservoir buried 20 feet underground that is tied in a geothermal loop. The UTB has a large thermal capacity and uses the ground’s stable temperature to provide a heat source or heat sink that is hotter or colder than the ambient air. Using a heat pump, this geothermal system can heat or cool a building. The key innovation of the UTB is that it can store thermal energy for later use, allowing it to accommodate the fluctuating thermal demands of a building.
The exchange of energy within this system is controlled and automated, which makes the installation very efficient. Andrew Stumpf, geologist and principal investigator at the Prairie Research Institute, described what makes this system unique.
“With this advanced installation, we can store thermal energy during times of lower demand and recover it as demand increases again. Through this mechanism you optimize the system’s efficiency,” said Stumpf.
The geothermal system at the Energy Farm, which began operation in May 2024, had immediate effects. Mies said he felt cooling almost instantly.
The primary purpose of the UTB is to provide heating and cooling, but the researchers also use this installation to study whether this new type of geothermal system can become mainstream. Although the farm’s office space is regulated by the geothermal installation, the adjacent laboratory space is heated by a propane furnace and cooled by electric-powered . An auxiliary part of this research project is to compare the efficiency of both systems. The hope is that geothermal technology can contribute to long-term sustainability goals on the farm. While the upfront cost of installing a geothermal system is higher than other renewable energy systems, the reduction in energy use is significant, so the cost recovery is expected to be quick.
Meanwhile, the Energy Farm’s main greenhouse is heated by a biomass boiler, which uses dried miscanthus as the fuel source. Instead of burning propane, this boiler turns the prairie grasses grown and harvested at the farm for research into heating.
In addition to these green installations, the Energy Farm is also home to a new 15kW solar array. The energy it generates is used by the farm, and excess energy is sold to the grid.
This array, with panels recycled from a campus building, is part of the SCAPES Agrivoltaics project, supported by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. SCAPES (Sustainably Co-locating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems) examines the capability of agrivoltaics, a practice that integrates and co-locates typical agricultural practices with solar electricity generation. Carl Bernacchi, Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at the University of Illinois and a principal investigator on the SCAPES project, provided insight into the environmental and ecological impacts of agrivoltaics research.
Because of its inherent constraints, agrivoltaics is an ideal framework for understanding crop responses to the environment, Bernacchi said. For example, the panels affect how much light reaches the crops. They also compete for space and slightly alter the temperature and humidity in the surrounding environments, making this a unique integration of the agriculture and energy sectors.
The array at the Energy Farm is layered on top of a plot of high-value crops. “I call it ‘hortivoltaics’ because it’s focused on horticultural crops like tomatoes and kale,” Bernacchi said. “It adds a whole dynamic level of diversity to the type of systems that we can study.”
In addition to this existing solar installation, SCAPES is building an 88kW array at the Energy Farm for the 2025 field research . This new, larger array will help researchers study agrivoltaics at a more realistic scale, paving the way for the commercial adoption of this practice.
All of the projects and initiatives at the Energy Farm represent the modern-day cross-disciplinary nature of sustainability research. Engineers are working with economists, educators, and biologists to make the technology of tomorrow happen today.
The Energy Farm employs two full-time staff who support the research being undertaken by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as their collaborative researchers. Students have played a key role in the success of these projects.
Regarding the geothermal research at the Energy Farm, Stumpf said, “Having a DOE National Laboratory and students involved creates a learning environment capable of providing numerous opportunities for collaboration and learning. We want this to be a living laboratory for students and faculty to use and benefit from.”
To Mies, running the Energy Farm is a team effort. “Our job is to work with researchers to bring concepts to reality,” he said. “When they say, can we do this? What do we need to do this? What’s it going to take? That’s where we come in.”
Energy use and generation on the farm can be monitored in real time from the Energy Farm Solar Dashboard >>>
— Article by iSEE Communications Intern Anjali Yedavalli
‘My Agrivoltaic Farm’ Game: Learning, Fun, and Sustainability — All in One
Imagine a lesson on agriculture and sustainability packaged in vibrant colors, pixelated fields, and charming animations. Creators of the new educational agrivoltaics app, My Agrivoltaic Farm, available for download on iOS and Android, have accomplished just that.
The Sustainably Colocating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems (SCAPES) Project sports an interdisciplinary team of experts in agriculture and engineering who explore the use of cropland as a source of both solar energy and food production. The “agrivoltaics” project, led by iSEE Director Madhu Khanna, ACES DIstinguished Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, aims to increase the amount of sustainable energy and crops produced in these fields.
To complement this real-world research, the SCAPES Education Team set out to create an app that teaches players of all ages about the interconnectedness of agriculture and sustainability.
When players step into the charming, pixelated landscape of My Agrivoltaic Farm, they are greeted with a field of opportunities. Starting in their small grid-like Arizona farm, players gradually expand their plot into a full-fledged agrivoltaic farm, complete with solar panels, tractors, sprinklers, other technologies, and a variety of crops. With a shop available for every necessary piece of equipment and crop they would need — and a list of quests that unlock valuable rewards — the world of My Agrivoltaic Farm will keep players coming back for more.
Games like FarmVille, Harvest Moon, and Stardew Valley are known for their relaxing gameplay and aesthetics, drawing a wide audience into gamified farming. For many players, these games are entertaining because they are strategy-focused, using realistic simulations of weather patterns and agriculture to encourage the player to explore — and to fail. SCAPES educational researchers and game developers at Balance Studios collaborated to uphold this pivotal theme in My Agrivoltaic Farm.
“We want people to experiment and learn about the range of impacts adding solar panels to farmland can have. And sometimes that means making sub-optimal decisions,” said H. Chad Lane, the SCAPES educational research lead and Associate Professor of Computer Science and Educational Psychology at the U of I. “Some kids go full tilt with just one crop because they think it’s fun. Some are like, ‘What if I stopped doing crops and only did solar panels?’ They realize that it works, but someone who’s doing both is progressing way faster in the game than you are, and they are learning which crops love the additional shade and how the solar panels benefit from the cooling effects of the crops underneath.”
An additional goal for the app’s creators is to reinvent the perception of farmers and agriculture for audiences.
“I don’t know what your mental image of a farmer is, but in reality, it’s not what we were taught as kids growing up,” said Scott Tuinstra, Associate Creative Director from Balance Studios who collaborated on developing the app. “Farmers are using drones, they’re using AI, they’re using robotics. They’re taking a lot of measurements to see how crops are responding to different things.”
The SCAPES Education Team prioritized a healthy balance between the science of the gameplay and its effectiveness in teaching audiences about agrivoltaics.
“I’ve seen scientists committed to precision and accuracy, so they make it as realistic as possible, but that doesn’t always make sense educationally,” Lane said. “For example, soil quality is a huge deal in agriculture. But we don’t model that in the game because we needed to put our limited resources into the most educationally important features, such as teaching the relationship between solar panels and crops.”
However, the developers pushed for certain details to be included, especially if they pertained to important themes in agrivoltaics.
“The weather patterns in the game, for example, are all geographically realistic,” Lane said. “They cover a wide range, and they affect the underlying simulation that drives the game. If it’s cloudy, the solar panels don’t do as well. If it rains, you don’t have to water your crops as often. You might water and then it rains, and then you’ve overwatered. So all of these things affect the results and make the game more engaging at the same time.”
Although the game does not simulate soil composition, it does simulate soil moisture. Players can watch the soil turn different hues as they water crops. Once their plot gets large enough, they can even purchase a sprinkler system to increase efficiency.
“I love watching the sprinkler work. You have to work hard to unlock that feature, and it is extremely satisfying to watch,” Lane said. “I smile every time I see it go off.”
A list of unique features makes My Agrivoltaic Farm stand out in a sea of educational games. For example, the art style of the app, akin to its simulation gameplay predecessors, such as FarmVille and Clash of Clans, is a favorite for the developers.
“I like the art style,” said Heidi Klessig, Vice President of Client Relations at Balance Studios. “I think that the look and feel of the crops are fun and engaging, and there’s enough detail to be interesting. I think that the visual look and feel of it resonates with the age that we’re trying to hit,”
The SCAPES team is conducting educational research on the app, testing kids’ knowledge of agrivoltaics concepts in conjunction with the time they spend playing the game.
“We’re conducting research with this game on how to design effective educational technologies,” Lane said. “We want to know about the experience that it creates for someone, what ideas it evokes for them, what questions they have. That’s exciting to me. There are not many high-quality educational games like this out there.”
My Agrivoltaic Farm is available for download on iOS and Android! You can learn more about the features of the app on the SCAPES website.
— Article by iSEE Communications Intern Anjali Yedavalli
Paul Mwebaze: Exploring ‘Agrivoltaics’ from the Ground Up
Paul Mwebaze likes American football, European football, and agrivoltaics. Let’s break that down if it’s confusing: the first is football, the second is soccer, and the third is integrating agricultural crops and solar panels on the same piece of land.
Mwebaze dedicates his days to iSEE’s Sustainably Colocating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems (SCAPES) project, studying the economic balance between agricultural and photovoltaic systems. SCAPES is a new project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at $10M over four years.
Mwebaze holds a master’s and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics and has published papers in leading economics journals; he is also an active member of the International Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. Drawn to Professor Madhu Khanna’s unparalleled reputation in environmental economics, Mwebaze came to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to work with Khanna, the ACES Distinguished Professor of Agricultural & Consumer Economics (and iSEE Interim Director).
Together, PI and pupil work on SCAPES, which provides interdisciplinary scientific research, extension, and education about sustainable agrivoltaic technologies. These systems will increase the economic well-being and resilience of U.S. farmers by maintaining or — even enhancing — food production while also increasing renewable energy generation.
This research is important, they say, because the competition is increasing as to whether land should be used for agriculture or energy production.
“SCAPES will provide the science to help reduce this land-use competition,” Mwebaze said. “It will provide climate-smart solutions to improve crop water-use efficiency, profitability, economic resilience of agriculture, and land productivity — including both crop and electricity yield.”
Within this large goal, Mwebaze spends most of his day coordinating and managing the SCAPES project activities. He also collaborates with his teammates to research the economic implications of using land for food and energy production simultaneously, and he brainstorms with Khanna weekly.
Beyond collaboration within the U of I, the SCAPES team also extends to the University of Arizona, Auburn University, Colorado State University, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as the researchers explore different climates and land types.
“Research collaboration provides opportunities to learn how complementary disciplines can be applied to agrivoltaics to develop more innovative solutions,” Mwebaze said.
The fruits of the researchers’ labors will most pertinently benefit American farmers — increasing their yields and profits — but SCAPES will also improve local sustainability by educating the public and generating renewable power.
“The SCAPES project research-education-extension plan will facilitate adopting climate-smart agrivoltaic systems, leading to increased food and energy production and a more sustainable and resilient agricultural sector,” Mwebaze said.
The plan is robust, including fact sheets, a website, and educational programming. These resources will be updated regularly and disseminated to schools, summer camps, and museums.
Looking ahead, Mwebaze is totally focused on SCAPES. He is excited about applying for more funding to begin a potential second phase of the project.
“There is so much work to do in the agrivoltaic space now and in the future!” he said.
— Article by iSEE Communications Intern Maria Maring
USDA Funds ‘Agrivoltaics’ Project Led by iSEE, University of Illinois Researchers
Urbana, Ill. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced funding for a new project led by iSEE Interim Director Madhu Khanna to optimize design for “agrivoltaic” systems — fields with both crops and solar panels — that will maintain crop production, produce renewable energy, and increase farm profitability.
This $10 million, four-year project, funded through the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Sustainable Agriculture Systems program with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the lead institution, will study agrivoltaics in a variety of land types and climate scenarios (Illinois, Colorado, Arizona).
“For centuries, humans have used the benefits of the sun to produce food and energy — and only in recent decades has humanity turned to harvesting solar for renewable energy,” said Khanna, the ACES Distinguished Professor of Agricultural & Consumer Economics at Illinois. “But to produce solar energy at the utility scale is land intensive, and cropland is often the most suitable for this purpose.”
While solar has become more profitable for land use, concerns have arisen that it could cut into food production. And some counties have now prohibited large-scale photovoltaic arrays from replacing agricultural land.
“Agrivoltaics — co-locating energy and food production — has the potential to reduce this competition for land,” Khanna said. “Our proposed project for Sustainably Colocating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems (SCAPES) will provide a comprehensive analysis of the transformative potential of agrivoltaics. Our goal is to maintain or even increase crop yield, increase the combined (food and electricity) productivity of land, and diversify and increase farmers’ profits with row crops, forage, and specialty crops across a range of environments.”
Illinois agrivoltaics investigators include Khanna; Carl Bernacchi, USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Physiologist; Bruce Branham, Professor of Crop Sciences; Evan H. DeLucia, Arends Professor Emeritus of Plant Biology; D.K. Lee, Professor of Crop Sciences; Kaiyu Guan, Associate Professor of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences; H. Chad Lane, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and Computer Science; Nenad Miljkovic, Associate Professor of Mechanical Science & Engineering; Samantha Lindgren, Assistant Professor of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership; Nuria Gomez-Casanovas, Visiting Research Specialist at iSEE; and Bin Peng, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
The Illinois team will partner with Dennis Bowman at the U of I Extension for agrivoltaics outreach activities. Additionally, the grant features a combination of research, education, and extension subawards for the University of Arizona, Colorado State University, Auburn University, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
View more, including the full project team, on the Agrivoltaics project website >>>
Also funded by USDA NIFA:
iSEE and the Illinois Regenerative Agriculture Initiative helped U of I researchers become part of a $10M project that seeks to make Midwestern agriculture more resilient by diversifying farms, marketing, and the agricultural landscape.
NIFA selected the Purdue University-led project titled “#DiverseCornBelt: Resilient Intensification through Diversity in Midwestern Agriculture,” which has a multidisciplinary team that spans the life, physical and social sciences.
Assistant Professor Andrew Margenot and Professor Emily Heaton, both in the Department of Crop Sciences, will use their $1.7M subaward to supervise students conducting biophysical measurements of cropping system function over a range of diverse crop practices. “We are excited to be working on this high-impact, regional project that is directly aligned with ISEE and IRAI,” Heaton said. “This project will let us identify ways to diversify the corn belt ecosystem that also increase rural prosperity.”
Other partner institutions on the project include the American Society of Agronomy, Conservation Technology Information Center, USDA Economic Research Service, USDA Forest Service, Illinois State University, Iowa State University, Montana State University, The Nature Conservancy, Practical Farmers of Iowa, University of Iowa, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin Madison, and UW Platteville.
“The Midwest has unmatched biophysical potential when it comes to agriculture: inherently fertile soils, ample rainfall and growing season,” Margenot said. “These natural resources can be used in multiple ways to meet rural communities’ and larger U.S. society’s needs: What are the trade-offs among these, from agronomic to environmental to socioeconomic outcomes? What are barriers and opportunities? In this work, a team of researchers across multiple Midwestern states will tackle these interdisciplinary questions. At the University of Illinois, we’re proud to spearhead the biophysical evaluation of agroecosystem sustainability.”
View the USDA description of the project >>>
Update from Oct. 20, 2021: iSEE brings in total of $34.7M
- $15M NSF Grant Creates I-GUIDE Geospatial Center. iSEE has helped facilitate funding to enable geospatial data-driven scientific discovery at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the resulting research will lead to better understanding of the risks and impacts of climate change and disasters. The $15 million Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment (I-GUIDE) will receive the funding over five years as part of the National Science Foundation’s Harnessing the Data Revolution, which establishes five institutes across the United States to explore questions at the frontiers of science and engineering. Shaowen Wang, Professor and Head of Geography and Geographic Information Science and Founding Director of the CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies, will lead the institute. Collaborating scientists and institutions will work with the CyberGIS Center in partnership with iSEE and the U of I’s Discovery Partners Institute.
- $2.1M in additional five-year funding from the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation for U of I researchers, led by Evan DeLucia (Emeritus Professor of Plant Biology), Carl Bernacchi (U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service), and new co-PI Lisa Ainsworth (USDA ARS) to extend the campus’s enhanced weathering experiments using basalt rock on farm fields.
- $2M+ from NSF’s Smart & Connected Communities program for a team led by Crop Sciences Assistant Professor Andrew Margenot to build a “Nutrient Management Community (NuMC)” to help farmers adopt effective and trusted tools that will help address critical water quality issues.
- A $1M, two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to bolster an iSEE 2020 seed-funded project to turn ash into energy. The Rapid AI-based Dissection of Ashes using Raman and XRF Spectroscopy (RADAR-X) Project, led by Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) Assistant Professor Nishant Garg, will develop rapid, real-time analysis of the ashes — then explore numerous composition-dependent end uses.
- One of iSEE’s original 2018 Campus as a Living Laboratory projects received nearly $1M from DOE and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Led by Agricultural & Biological Engineering Professor Yuanhui Zhang, the Environment-Enhancing Food, Energy, and Water Systems project is testing a livestock waste processing system that can deliver renewable energy as well as clean water and some bonus organic ag fertilizers.
- Another 2020 iSEE seed-funded project led by Blue Waters and Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences (NRES) Associate Professor Kaiyu Guan to monitor crop nitrogen status was granted $1M from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR).
- A $518,000 subaward for NRES Professor Jeffrey Brawn and CEE Associate Professor Jeremy Guest from the U.S. Geological Survey for the University of Minnesota-led Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) consortium. The eight partner institutions will advance scientific research and education in response to climate change impacts in the Midwest.
- A $500,000 subaward for Guan from DOE for a project led by Alder Energy to convert biomass into aviation fuel.
— iSEE Communications & Public Affairs Director Tony Mancuso