Agrivoltaics research under the midnight sun
August 29, 2025
Potato crops are growing between solar panels at the agrivoltaics solar station in Houston, Ƶ.
In Ƶ, where an estimated 95% of the food supply is imported and electricity prices are among the highest in the nation, researchers have developed a large-scale agrivoltaics project exploring an innovative way to address both energy and food security.
During this summer’s growing season, the University of Ƶ Fairbanks research team studied how crops and native vegetation grow between rows of solar panels in Ƶ’s unique subarctic climate at an 8.5-MW solar farm in Houston, Ƶ.
The project’s research design pairs detailed crop and ecological monitoring with solar energy performance tracking.
Vegetables including kale, spinach and potatoes as well as a cover crop (winter rye) were grown while native berry species were monitored in zones near, midway and far from the solar panels. They were also grown in control plots outside of the solar array.
Michelle Wilber, a research engineer with the Ƶ Ƶ Center for Energy and Power and a member of the research team, has long wondered how agrivoltaics might work in Ƶ as most of the early examples in the U.S. came from southern states, where climates are quite different. She was delighted to see lush Ƶ potatoes and kale growing between the lines of solar arrays.
The team collected microclimate data — soil moisture, soil and air temperature, humidity and wind speed — alongside plant physiology measurements such as photosynthetically active radiation, chlorophyll content, rates of photosynthesis and leaf water stress. They also assessed how agricultural activity affects solar energy output by equipping the photovoltaic, or PV, array with power meters, irradiance reference cells (cells that measure solar energy), temperature sensors and soling stations (cells that indicate how much material accumulated on solar panels affects solar energy production).
ACEP researchers and summer interns visit the agrivoltaics field site for a tour and field work.
Early findings suggest that soil near the solar panels retains more moisture and remains cooler than in the open field, which may slow bolting in spinach and could influence yields in other crops. While full yield and berry productivity results will be available after the 2025 harvest season, these initial observations are helping the team understand how solar arrays can be designed to support both power production and agriculture in high-latitude regions.
“I’m more convinced than ever that this dual-use model has great potential in Ƶ with our need for wide row spacing in PV arrays,” said Glenna Gannon after returning from the in Chicago where she gave a presentation on the project. Gannon, who is an assistant professor with the Ƶ Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension, is the project’s principal investigator.
Gannon hopes to see some examples of farm-scale or community-scale solar projects on existing farmland in Ƶ, which she thinks can benefit producers with lower energy costs and additional on-farm revenue while keeping agricultural land in production.
This project will ultimately allow researchers to quantify the feasibility of the co-location of solar PV and agricultural activities at northern latitudes so community members and stakeholders can make informed decisions regarding land use.
The study also aims to identify any maintenance or operational impacts from farming within a utility-scale PV array as well as to evaluate economic viability through payback period and return-on-investment calculations specific to high-latitude systems.
These combined findings will provide one of the most comprehensive assessments of agrivoltaics in a northern climate to date.
This project, “,” is led by researchers with ACEP and IANRE and partnered with, and. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office.