Transcript:

For many aspiring farmers, the high cost of land can make their dream feel out of reach.

But in Minnesota, some farmers are avoiding that high up-front cost by growing crops between rows of solar panels.

Lenarz-Coy: “There’s quite a lot of available space between the rows of panels.”

Sophia Lenarz-Coy leads the Food Group, a nonprofit that runs a program to support new farmers, including many immigrants and people of color.

The Food Group has partnered with the energy company U.S. Solar to offer free, long-term leases to three farms at the Big Lake solar installation in Minnesota.

Using land for both agriculture and solar is called agrivoltaics.

At Big Lake, farmers grow crops like kale and radishes – and on hot days, they can rest under the shady panels.

Lenarz-Coy says agrivoltaics can help make solar farms more popular in rural areas by keeping the land in agriculture.

And this approach opens up land to help farmers start new businesses as affordable land disappears.

Lenarz-Coy: “I think we need to get more creative and look at … how can we get really smart about combining interests, and I do think agrivoltaics is a really cool way to start thinking about that.”

Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media