Cranberry farmers want to build solar panels over their bogs

Plummeting cranberry prices and country’s ongoing trade wars have America’s cranberry industry eyeing a possible new savior: solar power.

Some cranberry farmers in Massachusetts, nation’s second largest grower after Wisconsin, are proposing to build solar panels above bogs y harvest each fall.

It’s a vel approach to blending renewable energy techlogy with traditional farming that has been researched across world but t tried before on large-scale, commercial crop cultivation, according to solar power and agricultural industry experts. basic idea is to build solar arrays high eugh off ground and in more d-out clusters to allow for crops to be safely grown and harvested underneath.

Cranberry farmers hope to shoulder lean times for ir industry by gleaning extra revenue — in form of long-term land leases with solar developers — while still producing same quality berries y have for generations. An ongoing, nationwide study also suggests certain crops in particular climates can thrive under solar panels, though it’s unclear at this point how cranberries will fare.

Michael Wainio, a fourth-generation cranberry farmer, said he has sold off parts of his land, started a side business harvesting bogs for or growers, and launched a farm stand, deli and bakery operation in recent years to make ends meet.

“We’re doing everything we can to diversify, and it’s t eugh,” he said. “If we don’t get this, I’d be surprised if we made it five years.”

Wainio is working with developer NextSun Energy on a project calling for roughly 27,000 solar panels over about 60 acres (24 hectares) of active bogs across three farms in Carver, near Cape Cod. project would produce about 10 megawatts of energy, or roughly eugh to power more than 1,600 homes, according to NextSun.

cranberry industry has been dealing for years with combined effects of crop surplus and weakening demand for one of its primary products, cranberry juice, said Brian Wick, executive director of Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association.

price of cranberries has plummeted 57% over last decade, from roughly $58 a barrel (about 100 pounds) in 2008 to $25 in 2018, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. But Wick says cost to produce tart red berries in Massachusetts is nearly $35 a barrel.

USDA permitted industry to dump millions of pounds of fruit in 2017 and 2018 in order to stabilize prices, but country’s ongoing trade disputes with Europe and China are furr compounding struggles for an industry that previously exported about 30% of its product, Wick said.

“What we like about se new solar projects is that y have a farm-first mentality,” he said. “This is an opportunity to keep industry going. This isn’t about replacing farms with solar.”

In Massachusetts, cranberry growers and ir solar partners are hoping to take advant of a new renewable energy incentive meant to encour such “dual use” solar and agriculture projects, as state refers to m.

To qualify, arrays must meet certain design requirements, such as being built at least 8 feet (2.4 meters) off ground. projects also must provide an annual report demonstrating land under panels remains agriculturally productive.

At least one proposal has received state approval, a handful of ors are under review, and more are pending before local authorities or are in earlier sts of development, say state and cranberry industry officials.

Dual use projects have proven successful on livestock farms in Europe and U.S., and hundreds of projects have been built on crop farms in Japan, though all those are vastly smaller than what’s being proposed on Massachusetts cranberry bogs, said Jordan Macknick, an analyst at federal National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado who is coordinating a nationwide study on “agrivoltaics,” as idea is sometimes referred.

impact on crop cultivation in different environments is still being researched, he said.

In a study published in September in academic journal Nature Sustainability, researchers at University of Arizona found that cherry tomatoes grown under solar panels in hot desert landscape produced higher yields and required less water.

But ongoing trials at a related site run by University of Massachusetts have so far found that broccoli, kale and peppers are less productive growing under solar panels in more temperate New England climate.

Or University of Massachusetts researchers are also beginning to assess potential impact on cranberries. y erected large wooden structures meant to mimic shading of a solar panel array on one of Wainio’s bogs this summer.

On a recent visit, countless berries could be seen growing under structures, but researchers said y’ll need to assess ir quality and yield when y’re harvested.

Giverson Mupambi, a UMass cranberry expert involved in effort, said one key factor y’ll examine is color. fruits need to achieve a bright red hue to be sellable, and sunlight is generally needed to achieve that color.

Property owners living near one of proposed projects, meanwhile, have formed an opposition group and argue state should proceed cautiously because long-term environmental impacts of such large-scale projects are still unkwn.

Those concerns and ors have prompted state to propose scaling back size of projects allowed under its new incentive, among or new requirements. Solar developers say proposed measures would make many projects financially infeasible.

And at least one major player in cranberry industry remains lukewarm on new approach to solar power.

A.D. Makepeace, world’s largest cranberry grower and one of Massachusetts’ largest landowners, isn’t currently looking to take advant of new state incentive, spokeswoman Linda Burke said.

company already has seven solar arrays across its 12,000 total acres (4,856 hectares) though those systems were built years ago on land t used for cranberry growing, she said.

“We think dual use might be a better fit for or types of agriculture,” Burke said. “If you think about a cranberry bog, it’s way out in open, and that’s for a reason. It needs sun.”