THORNTON, Colo. – A Colorado-based company has developed a thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar panel it says can be used instead of traditional rigid panels in solar arrays to better allow the technology to co-exist with agricultural production.

Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (ASTI), established in 2005, was created to explore, develop and market a thin-film CIGS (copper, indium, gallium, selenide) technology that utilized a polyimide substrate, said Paul Warley, the company’s CEO. The result is a lightweight, flexible solar solution that can be used in space and in such earth-bound activities as farming, he noted.

“Ascent’s recent foray into agrivoltaics (AgPV) is exciting and potentially provides significant benefits to farmers through power generation as well as positive impacts on crops and yield,” Warley told Farm World. “The ASTI DualHarvest system was designed to be as minimally invasive to agricultural operations as possible, while fully integrating with the active farming area.”

Agrivoltaics is the co-location of solar energy installations and agriculture beneath or between rows of photovoltaic panels, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The department has conducted research on agrivoltaics, looking at how it can impact both agriculture and energy production, and how it can fit into agricultural communities and economies, the agency said.

DOE said agrivoltaics has the potential to help farmers adapt to climate change and diversify their income through land lease payments or other business structures. Research in the Arizona drylands found that farming under solar panels can decrease evaporation of water from soil and potentially reduce irrigation requirements, according to the DOE. Agrivoltaics can also improve crop yield and crop resistance in extreme weather, such as droughts, the agency said.

Questions remain for farmers, DOE said, about how to do agrivoltaics, including which crops are suitable in a shaded environment.

ASTI’s DualHarvest system is ideal for grapes, lettuce, kale, beets and other root vegetables that benefit from partial shade, as well as for crops that are susceptible from sunburn damage, the company said.

The system could also work with livestock, Warley said.

“In the case of livestock, a structure such as the DualHarvest system has the potential to provide partial shade while simultaneously powering lighting, water systems or fences in remote locations where the expense of establishing grid-tied systems may be prohibitive,” he explained. “As more and more electrification initiatives come online, power needs will continue to rise.

“By enabling farmers/landowners to implement solar solutions with minimal disruption to operations, those increasing needs can be met with the added potential bonuses of water savings and increased crop health and resilience.”

With array heights of up to 16-18 feet, the system allows standard farm equipment to operate normally, the company said. The solar panels are curved to avoid precipitation and debris collection on the surface.

The ASTI thin-film can be customized for such things as voltage, wattage and size, Warley said.

“This ability to customize has the greatest benefit to farmers as it has allowed us to design a system that is the most efficient to build, therefore reducing system cost with the intent to increase accessibility,” he pointed out. “In designing the DualHarvest system, we challenged ourselves to develop the most manufacturable module, with the least yield loss and the most cost effective and robust structure.”

Nationwide, there is growing interest in using farmland for solar energy production, according to responses to the monthly Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

In June 2021, 9 percent of respondents to the survey said they had actively engaged in discussions with any companies about leasing farmland they own for the installation of a solar energy project to generate electricity.

“That’s drifted upward over time,” said Jim Mintert, director of Purdue’s Center for Commercial Agriculture. “You go back to this time last year, in April of 2023, I think 15 percent of producers in the survey said they’d had a discussion.”

The question was changed over the winter to reflect activity that had taken place over the previous six months, he said. In February, 10 percent said they had a discussion, while in March, 12 percent said they had. The number jumped to 19 percent in April, Mintert said.

The survey also asked about lease rates offers. In April, 58 percent of farmers said they had offers exceeding $1,000 per acre, up from 54 percent in March, he said. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they were offered a farmland lease rate of $1,250 or more, Mintert added.

Warley said the DualHarvest system pricing is undecided as the company “is working to determine the most appropriate way to market, build and package the technology to be affordable to individual farmers and landowners.”