Agrivoltaics in the US
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Michigan Technological University Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports 2021 The Social Dimensions of a Technological Innovation: Agrivoltaics in the U.S. Alexis S. Pascaris Michigan Technological University, [email protected] Copyright 2021 Alexis S. Pascaris Recommended Citation Pascaris, Alexis S., "The Social Dimensions of a Technological Innovation: Agrivoltaics in the U.S.", Open Access Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2021. https://doi.org/10.37099/mtu.dc.etdr/1177 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etdr Part of the Energy Policy Commons THE SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF A TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION: AGRIVOLTAICS IN THE U.S. By Alexis S. Pascaris A THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE In Environmental and Energy Policy MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2021 © 2021 Alexis S. Pascaris This thesis has been approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in Environmental and Energy Policy. Department of Social Sciences Thesis Advisor: Chelsea Schelly Committee Member: Joshua Pearce Committee Member: Richelle Winkler Department Chair: Hugh Gorman Table of Contents Author Contribution Statement ............................................................................................6 Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................................7 Thesis Abstract.....................................................................................................................8 Chapter 1: What Are the Socio-political Opportunities for and Barriers to Agrivoltaics? ..9 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................9 2. Placing Technology in a Social Context ...............................................................12 2.1 Diffusion of Innovations...........................................................................12 2.2 Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy .................................................14 2.3 The Function of Policy in Technology Diffusion.....................................15 3. Organization of Thesis ..........................................................................................16 4. Conclusions ...........................................................................................................20 5. References .............................................................................................................22 Chapter 2: A First Investigation of Agriculture Sector Perspectives on the Opportunities and Barriers for Agrivoltaics .............................................................................................33 1. Introduction ...........................................................................................................35 2. Methodology .........................................................................................................38 Table 1. Interview Participant Characteristics ...............40 3. Results ...................................................................................................................42 3.1 Long-Term Land Productivity and Planning ............................................42 3.2 Market (Un)Certainty and Observability of Benefits ...............................46 3.2.1 Relative Advantage ..................................................................50 3.3 Compatibility with Current Practice .........................................................52 4. Discussion: The Opportunities & Barriers for Agrivoltaic Diffusion ..................54 Table 2. Barriers, opportunities, and directions for future work regarding the diffusion of agrivoltaics. 55 4.1 Diffusing the Agrivoltaic Innovation-Where Are We Now? ...................56 4.2 Diffusing the Agrivoltaic Innovation-What Needs to Happen? ...............58 5. Conclusions ...........................................................................................................61 6. Appendix A ...........................................................................................................62 7. References .............................................................................................................64 3 Chapter 3: Integrating Solar Energy with Agriculture: Industry Perspectives on the Market, Community, and Socio-Political Dimensions of Agrivoltaics .............................74 1. Introduction ...........................................................................................................76 2. Literature Review .................................................................................................79 2.1 Market Acceptance ...................................................................................80 2.2 Community Acceptance ...........................................................................81 2.2.1 Stakeholder Engagement .........................................................82 2.3 Socio-Political Acceptance .......................................................................83 3. Research Methodology .........................................................................................84 Table 1. Interview Participant Characteristics ...............88 4. Findings: Understanding Opportunities & Barriers to Agrivoltaics .....................88 4.1 Market Acceptance ...................................................................................89 4.1.1 Complexity, Risk, Safety, Liability .........................................89 4.1.2 Economic Profitability .............................................................93 4.1.3 Non-Monetary Benefits ...........................................................95 4.2 Community Acceptance ...........................................................................98 4.2.2 Community Relations ............................................................101 4.3 Socio-Political Acceptance .....................................................................103 5. Discussion: Social Acceptance of Agrivoltaics ..................................................107 Table 2: Overview of key findings and recommendations ..........................................................108 5.1 Market Acceptance: Motives for Agrivoltaic Development ..................109 5.2 Community Acceptance: Retaining Local Values .................................110 5.3 Socio-Political Acceptance: Local Regulatory Environments ...............112 5.4 Implications for Decision Making ..........................................................115 6. Conclusions .........................................................................................................116 7. Appendix B .........................................................................................................119 Figure 1: United States Regions (source: National Geographic Society) .....................................................121 Table 3: Significant themes and participant quotes ......122 8. References ...........................................................................................................128 Chapter 4: Examining Existing Policy to Inform A Comprehensive Legal Framework for Agrivoltaics in the U.S. ....................................................................................................140 1. Introduction .........................................................................................................141 2. Background .........................................................................................................143 2.1 Developments in Agrivoltaics ................................................................144 2.2 The Function of Policy in Technology Diffusion: A Brief Overview....145 2.3 A Case Study ..........................................................................................147 4 3. Literature Review ...............................................................................................148 3.1 Policy Integration ...................................................................................148 3.2 Horizontal Alignment .............................................................................150 3.3 Vertical Alignment .................................................................................151 4. Methodology .......................................................................................................152 Table 1: Legal documents included in analysis ............153 5. Results & Discussion ..........................................................................................156 5.1 Federal Level Solar Energy Incentives...................................................157 5.2 State Level Legal Framework for Agrivoltaics ......................................159 5.2.1 Agriculture Solar Tariff Generation Units .............................160 Table 2: SMART program ASTGU provision features 163 5.2.1.1 State Level Feed-in Tariff ...................................................166 5.3 State Zoning Laws ..................................................................................167 5.4 Legal Framework at the Local Level......................................................171 5.6 Implications for a Multi-level Governance Framework .........................175 Table 3: Legal framework for agrivoltaics in the U.S. ...................177 6. Conclusions