Regenerative agrivoltaics: Challenges and opportunities in Southern California’s Inland Empire region

“Regenerative agrivoltaics” involves the co-location of solar development and regenerative agriculture. While regenerative agriculture focuses on promoting environmental quality, such as soil health, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services, agrivoltaics is concerned with the efficiency of dual land-use strategies. We investigate the principles of both of these approaches and discuss potential synergies between them. Opportunities pertaining to regenerative agrivoltaics include increased land productivity, enhanced soil health and biodiversity, climate change mitigation, and economic diversification. In addition, we discuss how agrivoltaics can provide farmers with a new revenue stream, while regenerative practices can enhance long-term soil fertility and crop yields. Several challenges remain in increasing the pace and scale of adoption of regenerative agrivoltaics, including policy and regulatory barriers, technical and economic uncertainties, and social and cultural factors. Despite these challenges, regenerative agrivoltaics presents a promising opportunity to address growing global food and energy demands. Further research is needed to fully realize the potential of this innovative land use combination, especially related to synergies and conflicts between the two strategies.