Ecological uplift through agrivoltaics: A new framework for sustainable energy and agriculture integration

Abstract

Ecological uplift is a quantified improvement in ecosystem condition (structure, function, and associated services) relative to baseline (pre-existing) conditions over a defined time horizon following a land-use intervention. Agrivoltaics (AV) is a dual-use strategy that integrates photovoltaic energy generation with agricultural land uses and is increasingly promoted for environmental and working-land benefits. Recent literature indicates AV can improve outcomes such as soil moisture retention, infiltration, soil carbon, pollinator habitat, and water-use efficiency relative to conventional agriculture or conventional ground-mounted photovoltaic vegetation management, although performance varies by design and context. A persistent gap is the lack of standardized, transparent evaluation methods that distinguish between realized and assumed benefits. This article frames ecological uplift as a rigorous evaluative construct for AV and introduces the Agrivoltaic Ecological Uplift Index as a metrics-based reporting scaffold across five outcome domains to support consistent monitoring, comparison, and decision-making.

Keywords

Agrivoltaics / Ecological uplift / Photovoltaics / Sustainable land use / Soil health / Hydrologic function / Biodiversity / Land-use efficiency

Funding

This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture McIntire-Stennis (accession number 7003934) and the West Virginia Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative supported a portion of this research under grant no. 2020-68012-31881 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The results presented may not reflect the sponsors’ views, and no official endorsement should be inferred. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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