Dr. Bijesh Mishra

Title: Agrivoltaics with row crops as a pathway to solar farming on cropland

Journal: npj clean energy

Authors: Madhu Khanna, Paul Mwebaze, Fahd Majeed, James McCall, Mengqi Jia, Xuzhi Du, Jordan Macknick, DoKyoung Lee, Bin Peng, Nenad Miljkovic, Evan H. DeLucia, Carl Bernacchi, Kaiyu Guan, Bruce Branham, Alan K. Knapp, Greg A. Barron-Gafford, Ruiqing Miao, Andrea K. Gerlak, Bijesh Mishra & Nuria Gomez-Casanovas

Abstract: Utility-scale solar expansion on Midwestern cropland in the US is intensifying food–energy land-use conflicts. Agrivoltaics, which co-locates solar panels with food/feed (row) crops, could ease community opposition by maintaining agricultural production while generating electricity. However, row-crop agrivoltaics remains difficult to scale because of yield tradeoffs, higher solar costs, and institutional barriers. Wider adoption will require new business models and community-centered land-use practices.

Link to paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44406-026-00049-1

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44406-026-00049-1

Citation: Khanna, M., Mwebaze, P., Majeed, F. et al. Agrivoltaics with row crops as a pathway to solar farming on cropland. npj Clean Energy 2, 32 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44406-026-00049-1