First Stakeholder Virtual Meeting Review
Researchers meet with more than 15 solar companies, and multi-state agricultural representatives to discuss the benefits and challenges of agrivoltaic systems
Our first stakeholder meeting, which took place virtually on Feb. 17, 2022, brought representatives from both solar and agricultural industry to discuss the details, benefits and obstacles of agrivoltaic systems on a local, national, and global scale. The SCAPES meeting provided a beneficial ecosystem for fruitful discussions and opened new avenues for more research.
Some of the speakers have shared data-, and experience-rich presentations, igniting dialogues across the breakout rooms. Thanks to questions designed for research-oriented conversations, we have learned about new obstacles that we look forward to understanding and hopefully solving in the next meeting.
The biggest questions revolve around land ownership, income dispersion, and policy limitations, among others. If you would like to participate in the next meeting and learn about the answers we have reached, you can reach us at sustainableag-queries@illinois.edu.
View a video from SCAPES’s Jordan Macknick, Lead Energy-Water-Land Analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_291b1euq
View a video from SCAPES Greg Barron-Gafford, Associate Profesor of Geography, Development & Environment, University of Arizona: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_wepyxr7a