Winifred Sylvah picked a handful of plump cucumbers on a cold, wet September morning as raindrops trickled off rows of solar panels in the background.
They’ve been a productive plant for Sylvah on a new plot of land at a solar farm in Big Lake. She’s already harvested about 140 pounds of cucumbers, with rows more waiting to be picked. Sylvah is one of three farmers working the land in between and outside the rows of a 1-megawatt solar array in Big Lake.
The Big Lake Farm is an example of agrivoltaics, a technique of mixing farming and solar power generation. The two interests are often pitted against each other in rural areas, but the rows of flourishing crops between rows of solar panels shows there’s enough sun to go around.
The farm is a partnership between The Food Group — a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization that helps emerging farmers and fights hunger — U.S. Solar and Conexus Energy. It allows farmers like Sylvah to affordably lease farmland while providing an additional use for land that would otherwise be fenced-in rows of panels.
The project started as a pilot in 2023, but this year was made permanent with Sylvah and two other farmers entering 10-year leases on the land. She wasn’t sure what to make of farming between panels, but after hearing from pilot project farmers and seeing new infrastructure like irrigation systems and a walk-in cooler to store freshly picked produce come to the land, Sylvah was up for the challenge.
“I decided to take a chance,” Sylvah said.
The program expansion comes as federal officials slash support for emerging farmers. In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced $300 million in cuts for a grant program focused on supporting land and market access for new farmers, defunding three programs aimed at helping farmers of color in Minnesota, MPR News reported. The cuts are part of the Trump administration’s eradication of federal spending aimed at diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
“Because racial equity is a core value for our organization and how we’ve set up our programming, we aren’t going to actively pursue federal grants for the next couple years,” Food Group Executive Director Sophia Lenarz-Coy told Sahan Journal.
Accessing land is a challenge for emerging farmers. The Food Group’s Big River Farms in Marine on St. Croix, Minn., is a popular incubator program for emerging farmers, many of whom are immigrants. But once they leave, farmers who can’t afford to buy land often lease plots for a year at a time, which doesn’t allow them the certainty to become certified organic or the chance to adapt to the soil over the years.
“What’s nice about people having longer term leases is they’ll have a little more time to experiment,” Leranz-Coy said.
Agrivoltaics seen as win-win
Growing between rows of solar panels offers similar yields to standard farming, according to Iowa State University Professor Ajay Nair. Nair has helped lead research on agrivoltaics in Ames, where a partnership with utility firm Alliant Energy led to a 10-acre solar garden lined with rows of crops.
Iowa State researchers have tried various fruits and vegetables in the solar garden, and for the most part are seeing the same yield as in comparison plots.
“Any grower can commercially grow their produce within an agrivoltaic system,” Nair told Sahan Journal.
There’s more space between solar rows than many assume, Nair said. Wires are deep underground and typically don’t prohibit tilling the land, and some plants benefit from rotating shade. As long as irrigation is in place, it’s a perfectly viable place to farm, he said.
There are co-benefits between farmers and solar firms, Nair said. Solar companies build large fences around their projects, which is useful for farmers. Farmers are on the land consistently and can tell the company right away if a panel has been damaged in a storm or if anything is amiss on the property. It also helps ease rural land politics by allowing solar and agriculture to co-exist.
“Having some sort of an agriculture system in there gives them the social license to operate,” Nair said.
Most agrivoltaic projects in the United States focus on livestock grazing, not produce farming. In western Minnesota, researchers at the University of Minnesota-Morris have run a successful cattle agrivoltaics plot for the past eight years.
Some 275 cows munch grass in between rows of a 500-kilowatt solar array in Morris, Minn., animal science Professor Brad Heins said. The cows benefit from the solar panels’ shade, with researchers finding less heat stress in the herd. That helps keep the cows healthier and more productive, Heins said.
“I think it’s garnered a lot of interest in Minnesota and around the world,” Heins said.
Learning curve
Sylvah came to Minnesota from Sierra Leone as a student in the 1980s. She worked in banking for more than 30 years before retirement. But she always loved growing food and has fond memories of tending the family vegetable garden with her grandmother.
She grew vegetables at home and got involved in a community garden, but when she retired she decided to make farming her profession. She got involved with The Food Group and worked a plot at Big River Farms.
The Big Lake farm is much closer to her home in Otsego. And it gives her the chance to get to know the land. She has about an acre and a half total: one acre in the solar garden and half an acre in an adjacent plot.
Sylvah has a large mix of crops. In the solar garden she planted vegetables that benefit from shade: onions, collard greens, green beans and scallions. They all did well, she said.
She’s learned from this season. She didn’t put down fabric to discourage weeds, but she will next year after spending too much time maintaining her beds.
Her banking background shines through: Sylvah is always thinking about the market for anything she grows. She’s developed a following for her West African crops. Her okra, sweet potato greens, collard greens and eggplant are in high demand, she said.
“I make sure I know people are interested in what I’m growing,” Sylvah said.
She has some bitter balls, a West African eggplant that Sylvah said is popular in Minnesota’s Liberian community, but she’s not selling any this year and instead hopes to get seeds for a larger haul next season. In late August, she put down new rows of green beans, planning a late fall harvest.
“I always will do my last harvest for Thanksgiving,” she said.
Sylvah sells her food through a Community Support Agriculture program and to local public school districts in Albertville, Minn., and Buffalo, Minn., harvesting and delivering to the schools herself this fall.
