On Cetta Barnhart’s demonstration farm in Monticello, Florida, she grows citrus bushes, leafy greens, and different produce that always goes to the community-supported agriculture venture she based, Seed Time Harvest Farms. Quickly, there might be a brand new addition on her property: photo voltaic panels.
![Six people stand in front of commercial-scale solar panels on a farm.](https://www.nrel.gov/news/features/2023/images/20230714-nrel-partners-with-black-farmers-collaborative-to-plan-solar-panels-florida-farms-churches-v2.jpg)
Members of the Black Farmers’ Collaborative visited Jack’s Photo voltaic Backyard in Colorado with NREL researchers to study agrivoltaics. Picture from Dana-Marie Thomas, NREL
Barnhart’s farm is one website the place U.S. Division of Vitality Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory (NREL) researchers are serving to the Black Farmers’ Collaborative additional plans to include clear power expertise on farms and in communities. On prime of serving to Barnhart scope out plans to combine photo voltaic panels on her farmland—an idea referred to as agrivoltaics, during which photo voltaic panels profit crops or livestock round them—researchers additionally helped the group lay the inspiration for putting in photo voltaic panels on homes of worship in and round Bealsville, Florida—a city about 25 miles east of Tampa. They hope the ideas will function fashions for producing photo voltaic power all through the state.
“I had already regarded into doing photo voltaic on my property and was simply taking a look at it to have photo voltaic because the backup,” Barnhart mentioned. “However once we began speaking as a staff after which we came upon concerning the agrivoltaics portion [and] how that may be included into farming, it actually introduced forth a much bigger and higher alternative to not simply profit by having it but in addition sharing that with different farmers.”
Agrivoltaic programs have the potential to not solely improve earnings for farmers, she mentioned, but in addition provide an opportunity to construct wealth for future generations.
The work was part of the Clear Vitality to Communities (C2C) Knowledgeable Match program, a U.S. Division of Vitality initiative that pairs communities with researchers from nationwide laboratories to supply short-term technical help to deal with clear power targets. Bealsville and the Black Farmers’ Collaborative have been amongst dozens of communities that utilized for and obtained help for his or her power targets via this system as of June 2023, and extra communities are within the pipeline to work with researchers to deal with their native power challenges.
![A woman smiles while holding a large bundle of freshly pulled leeks](https://www.nrel.gov/news/features/2023/images/20230713-nrel-partners-with-black-farmers-collaborative-to-plan-solar-panels-florida-farms-churches-cetta-barnhart.jpg)
Cetta Barnhart owns Seed Time Harvest Farms, a community-supported agriculture enterprise in Florida. Picture from Seed Time Harvest Farms
Historical past of Bealsville and the Black Farmers’ Collaborative
Bealsville was based by newly freed enslaved folks following the Civil Warfare, and it has remained house to Black farmers ever since. It’s amongst Black farming communities in Florida going through local weather and power challenges that vary from altering climate patterns to excessive power prices to meals insecurity.
Constructing belief with NREL earlier than partnering with the laboratory was key to the success of this effort.
“Black farming communities—together with in my family—they’re usually underserved … and there’s numerous fairness and environmental justice issues inside these communities,” mentioned Dana-Marie Thomas, an NREL resilience researcher and the group lead for the laboratory’s work with Bealsville. “They talked a couple of lack of belief in working with authorities organizations like NREL.”
The Black Farmers’ Collaborative, a bunch based mostly close to Bealsville that was based by pastor and group advocate Rev. Jerry G. Nealy, spent about 18–20 months honing their power priorities, gathering help, and forming a relationship with NREL researchers earlier than making use of for help via the Knowledgeable Match program. Velma Deleveaux, a member of the Black Farmers’ Collaborative staff, mentioned it takes time to develop belief even when researchers enter Black communities with good intentions.
“There’s a lot loss that Black farmers have skilled via discrimination, so there’s numerous skepticism when folks come into communities with new applications,” mentioned Deleveaux, managing associate of the enterprise consulting agency Veaux Options. “Listening on everyone’s half—that made it an important staff, and I believe that widespread curiosity on all sides is what made this work.”
Deleveaux was amongst a various group of stakeholders that participated in conferences with NREL researchers all through the Knowledgeable Match course of. Alexandra Kramer, an NREL researcher who helped the Black Farmers’ Collaborative develop plans for putting in photo voltaic panels on homes of worship, mentioned having views from an array of invested group members—together with farmers, native and state leaders, educators, and consultants—was priceless all through the venture.
“The largest factor I discovered from them is to construct a coalition and produce it to the desk,” Kramer mentioned. “That they had buy-in from so many incredible professionals, they usually had group leaders who had deep relationships with their communities.”
The NREL analysis staff helped the Black Farmers’ Collaborative slender their focus to 2 solar-energy tasks, create designs and plans for implementing them, and put together to use for funding to construct the programs.
“It’s collaborative,” mentioned James McCall, an NREL researcher who labored on the group’s agrivoltaics design and analyses. “We’re not going to go off and get you a solution; we actually wish to work with you.”
![Hands holding freshly harvested okra pods.](https://www.nrel.gov/news/features/2023/images/20230713-nrel-partners-with-black-farmers-collaborative-to-plan-solar-panels-florida-farms-churches-okra.jpg)
A pair of fingers holds okra from Seed Time Harvest Farms. Picture from Seed Time Harvest Farms
Incorporating Agrivoltaics on Farms: “A Recreation-Changer”
Incorporating photo voltaic panels on Barnhart’s farm was one in all two priorities the staff selected for his or her Knowledgeable Match venture.
“You need to suppose strategically about constructing momentum and credibility alongside the way in which,” Deleveaux mentioned. “You possibly can roll out a very nice design with a farmer that no one is aware of about or trusts. However we selected a demo farm, proper? And it simply occurs to be run by a girl who’s simply nice, revered, and identified locally.”
Barnhart based Seed Time Harvest Farms in 2012 to attach farmers to native shoppers, and her 14.5-acre farm serves as an illustration farm and a part of the community-supported agriculture group. She teamed up with Nealy and the Black Farmers’ Collaborative to help Nealy’s imaginative and prescient for serving to Black farmers care for his or her land in Florida and past.
“That’s the true gist of what this staff is searching for: How can we deliver become our group that’s long-lasting, that’s impactful, and that helps the Black farmers?” Barnhart mentioned. “This chance we imagine with photo voltaic is a giant one—altering the power recreation.”
NREL agrivoltaics researchers labored with Barnhart and the collaborative to design six choices for agrivoltaics programs that would combine with totally different crops on one acre of her farm, beginning with string beans. The staff additionally offered modeling to grasp the steadiness between set up prices, power output, and crop manufacturing.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all answer,” McCall mentioned. “It’s actually about offering this panorama after which permitting the group to say, ‘That is what I wish to do.’”
The Black Farmers’ Collaborative hopes Barnhart’s agrivoltaics turns into a mannequin for different farmers who wish to implement photo voltaic power programs.
“It was a game-changer once we actually began taking a look at how incorporating agrivoltaics into farming may play into households,” Barnhart mentioned. “The venture has helped me develop that dialog and give you an actual plan of implementation that may be duplicated.”
![A graphic showing six types of agrivoltaics configurations, including traditional utility-scale configurations of crop production, animal husbandry, and ecosystem services; and three alternative configurations including crops grown in between and under panels, elevated reinforced panels, and greenhouse solar.](https://www.nrel.gov/news/features/2023/images/20230713-nrel-partners-with-black-farmers-collaborative-to-plan-solar-panels-florida-farms-churches-agrivoltaics.jpg)
Agrivoltaics contains many various makes use of. Agrivoltaics programs may be put in in the identical fundamental row structure as a conventional large-scale photo voltaic plant—or they are often modified to supply further house for mild, animals, or farm gear to maneuver beneath and between them. Graphic by Al Hicks, NREL
How Black Church buildings Can Assist Lead the Vitality Transition
Along with planning agrivoltaics for Barnhart’s farm, NREL researchers developed a information for putting in photo voltaic panels on homes of worship and different commercial-scale buildings in Florida. The “highway map” contains steering for figuring out which kind of photo voltaic to put in (akin to rooftop photo voltaic panels, ground-mounted photo voltaic, or group photo voltaic panels); assessing buildings’ readiness for photo voltaic panels; understanding rules that have an effect on photo voltaic set up; securing photo voltaic contractors; sustaining the photo voltaic system; and decommissioning photo voltaic panels. The researchers additionally recognized funding choices Bealsville may pursue to finish the work.
“Outlining the method all through was a method NREL may present priceless perception that may enable the group to make their very own selections,” Kramer mentioned.
Bealsville has recognized a number of homes of worship within the area that might be fitted to photo voltaic panels. Nealy mentioned it is a chance for Black church buildings to point out their communities some great benefits of photo voltaic power.
“It has been the faith-based group, the Black Church, that has given management to our group,” Nealy mentioned. “We may help unfold that this might be an important profit to our group and be inexperienced company citizen.”
How Photo voltaic Vitality May Present “A Rippling Impact” in Bealsville
Nealy hopes the photo voltaic business creates job alternatives in and round Bealsville. The group is trying to associate with correctional services to coach previously incarcerated folks to construct, set up, and keep photo voltaic panels, he mentioned.
“All of those tasks, we’re anticipating them to do greater than what the main target is,” mentioned Charis Consulting Group President and CEO Saundra Johnson Austin, a member of the Black Farmers’ Collaborative. “We’re anticipating them to have legs—a rippling impact.”
Johnson Austin mentioned she hopes the venture “conjures up a era of STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] professionals,” a aim shared by Perry Blackmon III, a group activist, sustainable cattle farmer, and member of the Black Farmers’ Collaborative in Selma, Alabama. Blackmon, a wellness coach at Selma Excessive Faculty, mentioned he doesn’t see sufficient engaging jobs to maintain younger folks in Selma.
However fashions like Barnhart’s farm may present a vacation spot for Ok–12 college students to study photo voltaic power. Blackmon hopes the photo voltaic business gives youth in his group a substitute for a few of the extra widespread careers obtainable to them now.
“Photo voltaic and renewable power may give these youngsters a goal to wish to do one thing totally different,” Blackmon mentioned. “As a result of everyone doesn’t wish to be a cosmetologist, a nurse, a welder, or a brick mason.”
A lot of these renewable power tasks have the potential to uplift communities and produce lasting change, Barnhart mentioned.
“You run into these challenges with most governmental applications that solely repeat cycles and don’t actually deliver folks out of cycles. And I believe what we’re engaged on right here is to deliver folks out of cycles and to new alternatives,” she mentioned. “I’m simply grateful to be part of that sort of program the place we will hopefully see some modifications.”
![A man stands in front of about 20 cows in a pasture.](https://www.nrel.gov/news/features/2023/images/20230713-nrel-partners-with-black-farmers-collaborative-to-plan-solar-panels-florida-farms-churches-perry-blackmon.jpg)
A member of the Black Farmers’ Collaborative, Perry Blackmon III farms cattle in Alabama. Picture by Perry Blackmon III
Be taught How Knowledgeable Match Can Help Your Neighborhood
Though NREL offered the highway maps for the Black Farmers’ Collaborative to embark on photo voltaic tasks, the Black Farmers’ Collaborative—like different Knowledgeable Match communities—guided the decision-making.
“It’s crucial that the group implements these tasks on their very own phrases and that they’re homeowners of their tasks,” Kramer mentioned. “It’s not our place to have selections about that land.”
Jordan Macknick, an NREL researcher who led the agrivoltaics portion of the venture with McCall and Brittany Staie, mentioned the group was an important match for Knowledgeable Match as a result of they have been ready, enthusiastic, and open.
“The stakeholders have numerous concepts, they’ve an important cohesiveness amongst them, they usually knew they wished to do one thing daring. They knew they wished to do one thing that may have a broader influence,” Macknick mentioned. “That they had the drive, they usually simply wanted just a little little bit of assist … to deliver it to fruition.”
C2C connects community-based teams, native governments, utilities, and different organizations with nationwide laboratory specialists to shut the gaps between communities’ clear power ambitions and real-world deployment. The technical help supplied via C2C can supply significant insights round clear power decision-making to assist communities obtain resilient clear power programs that embody native and regional priorities. For instance, C2C evaluation can present insights on the monetary and social prices and advantages of electrical automobiles, geothermal programs, or capturing and storing photo voltaic power. Such evaluation supplies community-specific data on the funding and help wanted to deliver clear power tasks to fruition.
Knowledgeable Match is one department of the C2C program that provides 40–60 hours of technical help to communities over the course of two–3 months and opinions functions on a rolling foundation. Be taught extra concerning the C2C Knowledgeable Match program and learn the way to use.
Article from NREL. By Sarah Meehan
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