The National Center for Appropriate Technology, a nonprofit focused on sustainable energy and agriculture solutions, has launched the nation’s first AgriSolar Clearinghouse to connect farmers, ranchers, land managers, solar developers, and researchers with trusted, practical information to increase the co-location of solar and agriculture.

“There are tremendous benefits of pairing solar and agriculture,” NCAT Energy Programs Director Stacie Peterson, PhD said. “As America’s appetite for sustainably grown products and renewable energy continues to increase, agrisolar has the potential to provide both resources. AgriSolar is a win-win.”  

NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse features a library of peer-reviewed information, a media hub featuring videos, podcasts, and relevant news, and a user forum to connect people interested in agrisolar development in real-time.

“The AgriSolar Clearinghouse will present a platform open to all Americans for sharing the nationwide efforts in agricultural integration at solar facilities,” said American Solar Grazing Association Executive Director Lexie Hain. “The exciting thing for us at ASGA is that the AgriSolar Clearinghouse will amplify a thoughtful and trusted approach to expanding America’s efforts in solar and agricultural land use.”

The project’s diverse group of more than 30 partners and stakeholders representing private business, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, national energy laboratories, the Smithsonian, and leading universities will be a key ingredient in supporting the expansion of agrisolar developments across the country.

NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse is funded by a three-year, $2.03 million cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The Solar Energy Technologies Office supports early-stage research and development to improve the affordability, reliability, and domestic benefit of solar technologies on the grid.

“NCAT and our partners are well positioned to help solar developers and farmers connect to make the most out of co-locating solar arrays and agricultural land,” NCAT Executive Director Steve Thompson said. “For 45 years, NCAT has been a trusted broker of practical information to advance locally-grown and sustainable agriculture and energy solutions.”

To learn more about the AgriSolar Clearinghouse visit AGRISOLARCLEARINGHOUSE.ORG.

Dave Atkins, a forest landowner in Montana’s Blackfoot Valley, peers through the smoke-filled gloom of another hot and dry August, and he sees hope on the horizon. He’s part of a collaborative project with other small landowners, federal land agencies, conservation and watershed groups that thinks that an important solution can be found in a porous black shred of carbon called biochar.

“We’re on the cusp where biochar could really take off in the next decade. There is tremendous opportunity to form public-private partnerships that will be the catalyst to take this technology to scale,” he says. “We ‘re solving the production issues, and a market is starting to take shape. But there are some critical investments needed to jumpstart a viable biochar industry.”

Biochar is produced by pyrolysis – heating biomass such as agricultural waste or unmerchantable logging slash in the near absence of oxygen. Similar to charcoal, biochar is a porous and stable form of carbon that can improve soil fertility and water-holding capacity when added to farmlands and forest.

Atkins supports a three-prong strategy developed by the Biochar Policy Project, an alliance of landowners, researchers and conservationists led by the National Center for Appropriate Technology.  The strategy addresses three critical barriers:  Critical knowledge gaps on biochar must be filled. Barriers to private investment in launching the industry must be lowered. And a reliable supply chain of sustainable biomass feedstock must be developed.

He ticks off a long list of benefits to developing a robust biochar industry in the United States: It provides a market for non-merchantable slash from forest management intended to reduce wildfire risk, which otherwise would be burned. By reducing the need for slash pile burning, biochar can improve air quality.

When added to agricultural or forest lands, biochar can reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and improve crop yields on marginal land. The pyrolysis process can produce useable, renewable energy in the form of hot water, bio-fuels or biodiesel. Biochar can help stabilize toxins in mining waste and boost revegetation. Each of these environmental benefits also provide an economic boost and create new jobs in rural America.

Chuck Hassebrook, who has volunteered to coordinate NCAT’s Biochar Policy Project, highlights another major benefit. Biochar can play a critical role in pulling carbon out of the atmosphere. “Biochar’s unique promise is in providing ‘recalcitrant’ soil carbon that resists decomposition for hundreds to thousands of years.  In essence, it stabilizes biomass carbon that would otherwise be decomposed in soil and released back to the atmosphere as CO2 in a few years,” he said. “Adding biochar to soils is the agricultural strategy with the highest carbon sequestration potential, which is essential if we have any hope of limiting climate warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”

Hassebrook says the current move in Congress to invest in infrastructure, climate solutions and rural economic development provides an historic opportunity for the government to match private investments in biochar. He notes that a growing number of corporations are investing in biochar to offset their own emissions by removing carbon from the air. For example, Microsoft’s 2021 carbon removal portfolio includes three significant investments in biochar production companies, all located overseas.

To lower capital and supply chain barriers to development of an American biochar and biofuel industry, federal matching grants should be provided for pilot, demonstration and early-stage commercial pyrolysis facilities to jump-start the industry.

To provide a reliable supply chain of sustainably harvested biomass for biochar and bioenergy production, federal funding for removal of flammable, non-commercial materials from forests at risk of wildfire should dedicate those materials to biochar production where practical.

Dave Atkins and his neighbors in the Blackfoot watershed note that there’s still a lot of research and trial-and-error learning needed to develop the technologies that meet landowner needs specific to location, type of biomass, and proximity to markets. The watershed group has been experimenting with various technologies of varying complexity and cost to determine what works best under various conditions.

While landowners and businesses are focused on the supply side of the equation, a group of leading soil scientists and biochar researchers have proposed an ambitious plan to inform the market demand side. They have developed a ten-year “roadmap” for federal biochar research, a coordinated, multi-site plan to develop fundamental understanding of the effects of different types of biochar on soil, plant and carbon processes under varying conditions, as well as regional and site-specific research to develop promising applications of biochar.

“Production needs to increase, costs need to come down, and markets need to mature. This all requires investment. Then biochar will meet the potential to solve a whole lot of problems,” said Jeff Schahczenski, NCAT’s Natural Resource Economist. “The Biochar Policy Project provides a path forward to make that happen.”

Public investment in western states already is helping develop a biochar industry as a side benefit to reducing wildfire risk. The Blackfoot watershed landowners, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, recently received a $288,000 grant from the State of Montana Forest Action Plan to reduce the risk of severe wildfire around rural communities. About 1400 tons of unmarketable materials such as tree tops, limbs and small diameter trees, which traditionally would have been burned on site, will be turned into biochar through a pilot project using various technologies.

Biochar also received a bipartisan boost this month in Congress with the Senate’s approval of an infrastructure investment bill. Sen. Jon Tester, one of the lead negotiators who crafted the infrastructure bill, touted the inclusion of $200 million to remove flammable vegetation in fire-prone western forests for the creation of biochar or innovative wood products. “This is what Montanans expect from their elected leaders – that we work across the aisle to deliver real, lasting solutions that’ll have a positive impact on everyone who lives in the Last Best Place,” Tester said. The infrastructure bill is now being considered by the House of Representatives.

“We know all the pieces we need to make this work,” Atkins says. “Now is the time for our policymakers to embrace this sensible plan to align all the benefits and scale it up big time.”

• Related NCAT-ATTRA Publication:  Biochar and Sustainable Agriculture 
• Chuck Hasselbrook Opinion: One Critical Step to Limit Warming to 1.5 Degrees

NCAT was selected for a $1.6 million cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop the Agri-Solar Clearinghouse (ASC), a national information hub and professional network that connects researchers, technology companies, solar developers, landowners, farmers and consumers.

“Federal energy planners estimate that utility-scale solar installations could cover almost 2 million acres of land in the United States by 2030,” said Stacie Peterson, Ph.D., director of NCAT’s energy programs.

“Under traditional solar development, these lands could be taken over for energy-only production and this could lead to negative impacts on food production,” Peterson said. “However, there is tremendous opportunity for low-impact solar development that is complementary with sustainable agriculture, increasing pollinator habitat, improving soil health,  and  promoting native species, all while diversifying revenue streams for both agricultural and solar operations.”

“NCAT’s decades of experience in sustainable energy and agriculture will enable the group to work as an honest broker of co-location information,” said Peterson.

“Together, with our incredible network of partners, we hope to help promote the co-location of solar and agriculture in a way that is beneficial to both throughout the United States and territories.”

ASC will showcase and develop practical, affordable solar-energy solutions through research, success stories, case studies, and multi-media outreach. The project will also connect participants through an online forum, mailing list, workshops and farm tours to facilitate peer-to-peer exchanges and mentoring.

ASC also will have databases that help locate financial and technical assistance, as well as identify best practices, explain regulatory issues and provide policy information.

The Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) of the U.S. Department of Energy will provide a three-year, $1.6 million cooperative agreement to help fund the project. The total budget of the project for three years is $2,030,000.

NCAT has a number of partners in the project, including Argonne National Laboratory, Bozeman Green Build, Breezy Point Energy, Center for Rural Affairs, Fresh Energy Center for Pollinators in Energy, George Washington University, Helical Solar Solutions, Montana Renewable Energy Association, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Renewable Northwest, Ridge to Reefs, Seeta Sistla, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Virginia Working Landscapes, and Wexus Technologies.

ASC is expected go live in the summer of 2021.

The SETO program provided a total of $130 million in fiscal year 2020 for projects that improve the affordability, reliability, and value of solar technologies on the U.S. power grid.

NCAT’s project is one of four that focus on siting solar-energy systems in agricultural settings. The four projects were funded at a total of $7 million. Their aim is to help farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural enterprises gain value from solar technologies while keeping land available for agricultural purposes.

NCAT is a national nonprofit, founded in 1976, with a mission of helping people build resilient communities through local and sustainable solutions that reduce poverty, strengthen self-reliance, and protect natural resources.

It is headquartered in Butte, Mont., and has five regional offices around the country.

NCAT’s team of 35 sustainable agriculture specialists and energy engineers, along with its partners, will develop the clearinghouse. NCAT will develop alternate funding streams to ensure ASC will continue after the three-year funding period.

Energy Corps AmeriCorps members have quickly adapted their service, exemplifying this resilience. Earth Day is an important event, one than typically involves a wide range of events and activities planned and carried out by members. In the face of physical distancing and shelter-in-place orders, members have refocused their efforts to embrace creative virtual opportunities.

For example, Alli Kane, Energy and Climate Educator in Missoula, has taken an artistic approach to increasing awareness and getting people excited about Earth Day. Earth Day Art 4 All is a community art project led by Climate Smart Missoula and Families for a Livable Climate, and anyone with a creative itch can join. Alli encourages people to create Earth Day-related art to display outside their home, such as banners, window art, or sidewalk chalk drawings. Participants can send a photo of their art to alli@climatesmartmissoula.org and those submissions will be used to produce a virtual art show. The broad theme of this art project is “Healthy People, Healthy Community, Healthy Plant,” but get creative and show your love for our planet in any way you choose. Visit their website for more information.

Robin Adams, Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Red Lodge, is dedicating an entire week to celebrate Earth Day by hosting daily virtual activities and tours. The week’s activities include a Solar Q&A with experts Henry Dykema of Sundance Solar Systems and Andrew Valainis of the Montana Renewable Energy Association; a Critter and Plant Hunt using iNaturalist social networking site; a Beartooth Passive Home Live Tour; and a Community Movie Night. Visit their website to learn how you can get involved.

Maia Madrid, Electric Vehicle Outreach Coordinator for the Department of Environmental Quality, has created a visual interview graphic series that displays feedback from Electric Vehicle (EV) owners. A part of Maia’s service is to develop this project and provide insight into driving and buying EVs. There are only four car dealerships in Montana that sell EVs and she is working to expand awareness of this sustainable transportation technology. The visual interview project will be launched in honor of Earth Day, and you can check it out on their website.​

Check out these and other virtual events and get involved!

We want to thank Energy Corps and their host-site organizations for so eloquently transitioning regular programming to an online outlet. The motivation, dedication, and creativity displayed by this group is inspirational during these uncertain times. Other organizations are providing opportunities to be involved in the festivities, like the National Park Foundation providing virtual park tours, as well as Earth Day Live events found on the official Earth Day website. What better way to recognize that we, as a collective, can be resilient to hardship and therefore able to collectively revive the health of our planet and its people.