Native Hill Farms Solar Agrivoltaics | 16kW

This Native Hill Farms solar agrivoltaic array is quite unique! Our local farmers wanted a way to integrate enough solar to power their entire farm but needed to sacrifice precious fertile farming land. That’s where the expertise of Sandbox Solar comes into play! As one of the few agrivoltaic companies in the country, Sandbox Solar has the skills, experience, and knowledge to tackle this complex challenge.

Often, after multiple large harvests, farmland needs the opportunity to “rest.” By that, we mean not using a specific piece of land for a certain amount of time. This allows the soil to regain natural nourishment in order to produce a productive yield the next time around. Knowing this common agricultural practice, we can find different ways to utilize the space above the soil for other production purposes, such as solar energy!

Alongside our farms, Sandbox Solar constructed a custom 16kW agrivoltaic solar array using bifacial solar panels that fold down, allowing the array to swap places with the greenhouse behind it. This allows the farmers to rest certain parts of their land while simultaneously producing solar energy to power their entire operation. Thus, a symbiotic relationship is created between solar energy production and agricultural practices, all the while solving a very serious solar land-use issue. This a simple and elegant solution that can be utilized on a wide variety of farms, big or small.

Native Hill Farms and Sandbox Solar have not thoroughly tested the functionality of the swapping mechanism, but this spring (2024), we plan to document the entire process and share our findings so that this research can inspire agrivoltaic practices around the world.