Saving the family farm by combining solar and farming

Shawn Morton said NO to solar on his farm, at first. But thanks to the persistence of the solar company he carved out a deal that brings him revenue and allows continued farming and grazing on the land leased to the solar company. Agrivoltaics involves the integration of farming with solar and Shawn Morton says it will help maintain the economic viability of the family farm and enable him to pass the farm on to his daughter one day.
We visit the Morton farm, the Joffre Solar Farm and talk to Shawn and Claude Mindorf of PACE Canada about how it all works.
GreenEnergyFutures.ca CKUA.com Video Podcast
Episode 382B
Learn more in our blog: www.greenenerg...
#solar #renewableenergy #electricity #farming #grazing #alberta #sustainability #green #climateaction #energytransition #energysustainability #energy @SolarAlberta @canadianrenewableenergyass2760

[@pipertripp]

Love the symbiotic relationship. Keeping the land in the family by having two revenue streams are that largely independent of one another provides more security in an age where farmers are really getting squeezed and their margins are small.

[@lpdirv]

Solar by farmers for farmers. Seems like a good fit. Would talking to irrigation farmers make sense. The corners of the pivots are often unused land and the site has power for the pivot so also lines for export. Irrigated land is often in a high sun area.

[@stickynorth]

Agriculture and PV farming are truly symbiotic enterprises that benefit both the community and the farmer. Same with wind farms. Anyone who says otherwise is clearly a mis/uninformed armchair expert/troll... Hopefully we'll also see more bifacial vertically mounted PV soon because of how much "scrub land" could be put into use with it... I wonder if Edmonton just lined the AHD with panels how much power it could produce... A godly amount I am sure!

[@busog97641]

I love this channel ❤

[@davecarnell9631]

I don't see any real downside to this, but a significant amount of battery storage would really sell this to pretty much anybody in Alberta

[@Davran2742]

Smart.

[@l0I0I0I0]

I'm curious!