Why Agrivoltaics
When applicable, Lightstar enables landowners to double the productivity of their land through dual-use community solar projects. Farmers can continue to raise crops or graze livestock and landowners can continue to offer farm leases while also receiving reliable, long-term income from a solar lease.
Our team works with farmers and landowners to understand specific needs, such as crop rotation, regenerative agriculture, wells and farming infrastructure.
Our goal is to build solar projects that maximize benefits for the landowner while respecting and protecting the land.
The Benefits
Income from Lease + Agriculture
Earn income from continuing to farm, graze, or lease the land for farming, while earning an annual solar land lease payment for 20+ years.
Maintain Your Farming Legacy
The number of America’s small and mid-size farms are shrinking. Dual-use removes pressure to sell or lease your land for non-farming operations.
Serve Your Community
By hosting a dual-use solar facility, you’re providing a source of low-cost, clean energy to your community, while sustaining the agricultural viability of the farmland upon which it’s built.
Take a look at our most recent AgPV project!
Dual Use: Solar + Crops
Lease your land for harvesting solar while continuing to farm with Lightstar.
Hosting a community solar project with Lightstar doesn’t mean you need to retire your land from farming. We can design and build projects to accommodate livestock grazing with higher, stronger racking or to allow for cultivating crops with wider spacing between the rows of solar panels. Our team also understands that considerations around farming needs, such as crop rotation and regenerative agriculture, may need to be built into the solar project’s design.
This arrangement enables landowners to not only reap more income from their land, but to also continue to support farming, either by them and their family or by other farmers in their community.
Solar + Crops
Our installations are designed with your crops in mind. We consider appropriate spacing to accommodate cultivation, as well as infrastructure such as irrigation and animal/deer fencing. We can subsidize any new equipment or customizations that may be required to fit with the dimensions of the solar array’s posts and panels.
Solar + Grazing
To accommodate livestock grazing, we can build projects with higher, stronger racking and include infrastructure such as fencing, access/loading areas, shelter and water supply as part of the solar array installation.
