Piedmont Environmental Council Pioneers Crop-Based Agrivoltaics in Virginia

In 2025, the Piedmont Environmental Council in Virginia is pioneering a unique crop-based agrivoltaics demonstration project on a portion of an 8-acre community vegetable farm it manages. This project, which the Council says is the first of its kind in the state, aims to showcase how renewable energy can coexist with and even benefit agricultural lands.

The project was made possible by Loudoun County residents who, over a decade ago, banded together to purchase and donate open space to the Piedmont Environmental Council before it could be developed. The nonprofit has since maintained the land as a blend of cattle pasture, nature preserve, and community farm.

Now, a small corner of the farm features 42 ground-mounted solar panels with a total capacity of 17 kilowatts, as well as about 2,000 square feet of growing area. The Council hopes to carefully measure the impact of the solar panels on factors like soil moisture, temperature, and crop yield, as well as test for any potential contaminants. The data collected will be shared with educators, policymakers, and farmers to help inform the future of agrivoltaics in Virginia.

This project comes at a critical time, as the state works to meet its goal of developing 16,100 megawatts of land-based renewable energy by 2035 under the Virginia Clean Economy Act. The Council's work aims to demonstrate that renewable energy and agriculture can coexist, even as solar development has increasingly displaced farmland in recent years.