From niche-innovation to mainstream markets: Drivers and challenges of industry adoption of agrivoltaics in the U.S
Alexis S. Pascaris,
Andrea K. Gerlak and
Greg A. Barron-Gafford
Energy Policy, 2023, vol. 181, issue C
Abstract:
Agrivoltaic systems harmonize agriculture and solar energy to mitigate land use competition, strengthen agricultural viability and resilience, and enhance solar development practice. Innovations in agrivoltaics has gained traction globally yet exist in niche-application and early adoption stages in the U.S. While initial research has emphasized technical and economic performance, critical questions remain about stakeholder adoption, social acceptance, and the role of policymakers. To better define the socio-political landscape for agrivoltaic development, we leverage qualitative interviews with U.S. solar professionals. We articulate key sets of drivers and challenges of industry adoption and their interactions. The findings suggest that overcoming the challenges impeding U.S. solar industry adoption of agrivoltaics will require robust market mechanisms that stimulate price improvements as well as coordinated, cross-sector learning processes, research, and regulation. We maintain that socio-political adaptations, coupled with techno-economic advances in price and performance, may constitute the key improvements of the development landscape for agrivoltaics in the U.S. Multi-stakeholder considerations and the co-evolution of technology, practice, and regulation are discussed in the context of developing the enabling framework conditions to progress agrivoltaics from niche-innovation to mainstream markets.
Keywords: Agrivoltaics; Socio-technical transition; Technology innovation; Energy; Solar; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421523002793
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:181:y:2023:i:c:s0301421523002793
DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113694
Access Statistics for this article
Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France
More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu (repec@elsevier.com).