Agrivoltaics as a systems innovation: Multi-dimensional benefits from global studies across climate, agriculture, energy, and ecosystems

Agrivoltaics offers a promising alternative to land competition between crops and solar farms. Most agrivoltaic research and policy discourse, however, has focused on energy yield and food output, overlooking the broader spectrum of ecological, economic, and social benefits, that has made it challenging to fully assess agrivoltaics’ potential as a comprehensive systems-level solution. This study addresses this gap by synthesizing findings from prior studies and categorizing their insights into six distinct but interconnected spheres of agrivoltaic impact: Sustainability Sphere (Water-Climate-Ecosystem), Soil-Crop Sphere (Agricultural Yield and Food Security), Socioeconomic Sphere (Economic and Financial Resilience), Solar Power Sphere (Energy and Power Generation), Spatial Efficiency Sphere (Land Productivity & Land Use Synergies), and Species Sphere (Human and Animal Welfare). The evidence demonstrates that implementing agrivoltaics across crops that demonstrated yield increases could generate an additional 1800 million tonnes of food globally in a maximum-potential scenario, which could potentially feed more than 2.1 billion people annually. Such a scale of impact suggests that agrivoltaics could be instrumental in reducing global hunger and mitigating starvation-related deaths, especially in regions most vulnerable to food insecurity. Economically, the increased agricultural output could generate over $1 trillion USD in additional agriculture income, bolstering rural livelihoods, national economies, and global trade. Agrivoltaics not only promotes more efficient land use but also reduces water demand and carbon emissions by partially shading crops, thereby mitigating the negative effects of climate change on yield and irrigation needs. It is clear that agrivoltaics is a multidimensional solution with far-reaching global implications.