When you think of solar farms, you probably picture panels soaking up the sun on acres and acres of farmland.

soaking up the sun on acres and acres of farmland.

But what if those panels coul also support life beneath them?

But what if those panels coul also support life beneath them?

That's the idea behind Agrovoltaics.

Combining renewable energy with agriculture, and for some beekeepers it's the perfect place for their hives.

[music] is the perfect place for their hives.

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Not long ago, I had a chance to bring my clas from Virginia State University to visit my friend Allison in Charlottesville.

Allison runs a thriving business that manages over 400 beehives across Virginia.

What started as a passion has grown into a full scale operation, offering hiv inspections, honey extraction, wildflower planting and environmental education.

She recently invited me to help her inspect her highs on a local solar farm where her bees are thriving.

So can you tell us what agrivoltaics means?

Agrivoltaics is the dua use of land for the production of solar energy and agricultural use at the same time.

So that can look like bees on the solar site.

It can look like and most often looks like sheep grazing on the solar site.

It could be cattle, it can be vegetables, fruits.

We can make food and energy on the same site.

I agree.

And when solar energy first came on the scene, a lot of people were dismayed at using land for solar.

Like we understand the importance of solar energy and solar power.

But they're all this land was just kind o sitting there, you know, fallow.

We have found that if you're planting good vegetation, native plants and you're managing tha properly, it actually increases the efficiency of the solar panels too, because the better tha you manage the land underneath the panels, sort of the lower the temperatures are.

So operating temperature being low is sort of critical to the efficiency of the panels.

It's a win for the land because we have solid, stable vegetation underneath the panels.

It's a win for the farmer because they have supplemented income and the ability to keep farming their land.

And it's a win for the solar company because they're producing energy and they have reduced costs with this model.

Across the Commonwealth, there are 130 utility scale solar farms.

This particular site spans 203 acres and generates enough electricity to power around 2100 homes While combining pollinator habitats and livestock with solar energy efforts offers promising potential for multi-use land like this, its long ter success on agricultural land in Virginia is still being studied and discussed.

For Allison and her business, tending to these hives is both an environmental and economic effort.

Bringing essential pollinators to the ecosystem while also putting hive byproducts to use in our local economy.

So the more bees we have, the more clover we have, the more nitrogen we're putting back into the soil, the more we're feeding everything else around it.

So it's really a really good symbiotic relationship that benefits everybody.

Can we go meet the bees?

Let's do it.

Let's go.

They are hopefully looking good for us today.

hopefull all of our queens are in there and everybody's got plenty of honey.

That's right.

Everybody's happy.

Yep.

On this solar farm Allison has ten Langstroth hives which houses about 600,000 honeybees.

The ideal number of hives she'd like to get to on the solar far is anywhere between 20 and 30.

So there's room to grow.

I see lots of wild flowers here.

Mm.

I have a lot of flowers at my house as well.

Not to the extent that you have here, but I've been noticing that the bees are a little feisty.

Mm mm.

Cause we're in a dearth.

The weather's been wacky.

It has been wacky.

Lots of rain.

It's been super hot.

So are you finding that bees are still bringing in pollen.

Are they still foraging?

This has been a really odd year for u and I think for most beekeepers in the state.

generally speaking the the bees came out of winter a little bit smaller than they they did the last two years before that.

So lower populations at the beginning of spring when the flowers first started just means fewer workers to bring home honey.

So what we find is that the bees do really well on the solar sites.

More often than not, the solar companies are planting, you know, pollinator habitat in the open areas surrounding the hives.

And they're planting a clover mix underneath the panels, which works for them and for me, because, you know, clover is is easy to establish and it's low growing.

And so they don't have to graze it or mow it or deal with it as often as they would tall grasses.

But it benefits everybody because, you know, it's a it's a good easy to establish low growing species for them.

And it feeds my bees.

See all that fresh nectar.

It's still coming in, and I really, I assume it's from the clover.

Speaking of the circular economy and with with solar, you know, one really fun pathway that can be followed is that we install base on a solar site.

We harvest honey off of those bees, and then that honey gets turned into mead, and then you're really talkin about some value added product from the solar site.

And that is kind of, you know, we're we're branching into agritourism at that point.

And so, you know, that's reall an economy that can be scaled.

As our need for clean energy grows, so does the opportunit to rethink how we use our land.

Agrivoltaics offers a promising path forward where food, farming and solar power can work hand in hand.

It's making a net positive impact to the planet.

So we're excited about that.

We also just really love educating people about these dynamic systems and about bees and honey.

And as human development increases, pesticide use increases, we lose habitat and an alarming rate.

And we have thi beautiful opportunity with solar to reestablish habitat.

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