AURORA — Growing crops and harnessing solar energy need not be mutually exclusive.

That’s the idea behind a $1.5 million project at Oregon State University’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center, putting the concept of agrivoltaics to the test.

Agrivoltaics, or dual-use solar, is exactly what its name implies — using areas of land simultaneously for farming and solar power generation, which has the potential to not only add another revenue stream for producers selling electricity, but also better manage sunlight for plants.

Chad Higgins, an associate professor of biology and ecological engineering for OSU, has studied agrivoltaics since 2015. During that time, he conceived a research farm where he could experiment with how to maximize the benefits of solar panels on farmland.

Seven years later, construction is underway on the OSU Solar Harvest facility, with a 326-kilowatt solar array being installed on 5 acres at NWREC. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Oct. 11 at the research station, about 20 miles south of Portland.

“To have it all come together, finally, after all the intermediate struggles along the way, is amazing,” Higgins said. “I can’t wait to get started.”

Finding funding for the project was one such struggle, Higgins said. Because the project will produce and sell electricity, that ruled out any state or federal grants.

Instead, Higgins partnered with the Oregon Clean Power Cooperative, a nonprofit dedicated to helping build community solar projects. Co-op members are helping to finance construction, and in turn will receive power from the array.

The Roundhouse Foundation, based in Sisters, Ore., also provided an $800,000 grant for agrivoltaics research through the OSU Foundation.

“There are obvious pushes toward electrification of our entire economy,” Higgins said. “When you think through the consequences of that, the push of solar into agricultural areas is inevitable. That can be thought of as a detriment, or an opportunity.”

According to Higgins’ research, widespread installation of solar arrays on farms could provide 20% of all electricity generated nationwide. To reach that benchmark would take a land base roughly the size of Maryland, or about 1% of current U.S. farmland.

A different study led by Higgins in 2015 analyzed the effect of solar panels on sheep pasture near the main OSU campus in Corvallis. Findings showed that grass grown underneath solar panels used water 300% more efficiently and grew 90% more forage.

Once completed, Higgins said he will first use the Solar Harvest array to further study alfalfa and grass as “reference crops.”

“How much water can you save, and how much stress can you relieve because of the agrivoltaics? If I can understand that on a reference crop, then I can translate that to other crops,” he explained.

Unlike other agrivoltaic demonstrations, Higgins said the Solar Harvest array is different in its design. Rather than lifting the panels high off the ground, they are fitted on hinges that run north to south and can tilt nearly vertical.

In other words, Higgins said that instead of trying to pass equipment underneath panels, this array will allow the panels to move as needed to make room for farming.

“This is highly important, because the cost of steel plays so big in the economics of the design,” he said. “Absent any additional subsidies from the government, it’s hard to make highly raised panels work, economically.”

Installation of the solar panels and other equipment is expected to take about a month, with research slated to begin shortly after the work is completed.

“It’s on us and my colleagues to show the benefits of agrivoltaics, so those benefits can be realized by rural Americans,” Higgins said.

George Plaven is a reporter for the Capital Press.