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12 Chi.-Kent J. Env't Energy L. 1 (2022-2023)
Emerging Agrivoltaic Regulatory Systems: A Review of Solar Grazing

handle is hein.journals/jeel12 and id is 6 raw text is: EMERGING AGRIVOLTAIC REGULATORY SYSTEMS: A REVIEW OF SOLAR GRAZING Jessica Guarino and Tyler Swanson In recent years, tensions have grown in rural communities in response to rapid development of utility-scale solar energy production facilities over the proper use of rural land, particularly between agricultural and solar energy production. Ongoing land use tension between agriculture and solar energy production has motivated some landowners to co-locate solar panels and crops or livestock on the same plot of land in a process called agrivoltaics. The evolution of agrivoltaics from an experimental land use strategy to a viable diversification method for farmers necessitates an analysis of existing zoning laws, tax policies, and contractual agreements that farmers must abide by-and which may inhibit the full development of agrivoltaics into an industry. This article analyzes existing agrivoltaics policy by reviewing the history of how agricultural land use has shifted over time as well as by examining existing zoning and taxation laws for agrivoltaics. Further, this article applies the evidence analyzed to the rapidly growing practice of solar grazing, a subfield of agrivoltaics that involves farmers grazing sheep and other livestock on utility-scale solar energy facilities. The article reviews existing grazing contracts and best practices from adjacent grazing industries to offer regulatory insights for the developing agrivoltaics industry. The article concludes by positing further research questions and proposing legislative reforms that may provide a friendlier legal landscape for agrivoltaics and other dual-use operations at the nexus of agriculture and renewable energy. INTRODUCTION The desire for vast tracts of open land used to develop new renewable energy systems in the 21st century has led to tension over whether to allocate land for agricultural or energy uses; fortunately, these two land uses need not compete. Growing fruit and grazing sheep beneath vast solar arrays represent some of the most promising combinations of land uses in recent times. Agrivoltaics is a dual-use approach allowing land to generate power from solar photovoltaics (PV), commonly known solar panels, with agricultural production to generate solar power and produce food simultaneously.1 As research has expanded the possibilities of coupling ' Stephan Schindele et al., Implementation ofAgrophotovoltaics: Techno-economic Analysis of the Price-Performance Ratio and its Policy Implications, 265 APPLIED ENERGY 2 (2020),

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