An energy institute based at Washington State University Tri-Cities will use a $2.4 million grant to show how green energy generation also can help protect one of the state’s marquee crops. 

The Institute for Northwest Energy Futures will use the Washington Department of Commerce grant to fund a 1-acre 610 kW dynamic agrivoltaic demonstration system at the WSU Sunrise Research Orchard near Wenatchee in partnership with Sun’Agri, a European company that builds solar panel systems and the software that controls them, according to a release. 

The dual-use demonstration site is being designed to provide strategic orchard shading to help reduce summer sunburn risks while also generating solar power for agriculture operations. 

Agrivoltaics could play a crucial role in intensifying the electrification of agricultural operations, experts said, such as powering irrigation pumps, frost-inhibiting wind machines and other equipment. The ability for such energy-generating systems to protect crops from intense sunlight could provide further incentive for farmers and orchardist to install them. 

Washington apple orchards growing varieties such as Honeycrisp, Granny Smith and Cosmic Crisp represent about 35% of U.S. domestic apple sales and are estimated to be produced on more than 50,000 acres in the state. Covering 10,000 acres of these orchards with dynamic agrivoltaic systems could provide an impressive 6,100 MW of installed power generation capacity, where there is potential to return power to the grid.