Farming and Solar Facilities: Growing Plants, Power and Partnerships through Agrivoltaics

Name: Farming and Solar Facilities: Growing Plants, Power and Partnerships through Agrivoltaics
Start: 2025-10-14T18:30:00-04:00
Location: County of Albemarle

Schedule

Tue, 14 Oct, 2025 at 06:30 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

County of Albemarle | Charlottesville, VA

Large-scale solar facilities are being built across the country to meet the nation’s electricity needs. Solar generated electricity is one of the most affordable types of energy sources. Landowners are exercising their personal property rights to lease their land to solar developers, helping ensure their family has a stable revenue stream over the life of the solar facility, which can be thirty or more years.

Join us to learn more about how sustainable vegetation management can provide benefits to the land. Ivy Main, lawyer and writer focusing on energy, climate and the environment, will speak about the benefits of pairing agricultural practices with solar facilities. Jim Purekal, Director for Advanced Energy United's legislative portfolio in Virginia, will present information about creating energy and providing space for crops, grazing, and native habitats. Jess and Marcus Gray, owners of Gray’s LAMBscaping, LLC, will talk about Sheep Grazing: Agrivoltaic practices in solar and the Sheep Economy.

Co-location, also known as agrivoltaics or dual-use solar, is agricultural production, such as crop or livestock production or pollinator habitats, underneath solar panels or adjacent to solar panels. Exploring agricultural practices that optimize both energy and agricultural production at co‐located sites offers opportunities to increase overall property value and lower developer soft costs.
Farm and land preservation vs our need for additional renewable energy can co-exist and work together. Our program is intended to influence agricultural interests/farmers/rural residents that land/farm preservation can coexist with solar community facilities through intentional planning, agrivoltaics and other methods.

Join us in the Totier Room. For more information contact Kirk Bowers [email protected]