Bill Text: CA SB688 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

California Senate Bill 688

Bill Title: Agrivoltaic systems: grant funding.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed) 2023-09-01 - September 1 hearing: Held in committee and under submission. [SB688 Detail]

Download: California-2023-SB688-Amended.html

Amended IN Assembly June 30, 2023

Amended IN Assembly June 08, 2023

Amended IN Senate April 17, 2023

Amended IN Senate March 20, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 688

Introduced by Senator Padilla

February 16, 2023

An act to add Section 25238 to the Public Resources Code, relating to energy.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 688, as amended, Padilla. Agrivoltaic systems: grant funding.

Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to undertake various actions in furtherance of meeting the state’s clean energy and pollution reduction objectives.

This bill, contingent upon an appropriation for its purposes, would require the commission to award grants for agrivoltaic system projects to support research and development in agrivoltaic systems, study the impacts of agrivoltaic systems on farms, on the state’s agricultural economy, and on electricity generated from solar panels, and study the potential of agrivoltaic systems to reduce the impact of extreme heat on crops, livestock, and agricultural workers. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with the Department of Food and Agriculture, to develop guidelines and criteria for determining a project’s eligibility for grant funding and to take certain actions for purposes of the grant program. The bill would require the commission to conduct an evaluation of the grant program, as specified, and make the evaluation publicly available on its internet website.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) California should lead the nation in deployment of agrivoltaic systems, which are solar energy systems integrated into agricultural production within the same land area, also referred to as agrisolar or dual-use solar.

(b) Agrivoltaic systems enable farmers to harvest both agricultural products and solar energy from the same acre of land, improving overall land productivity. Important potential cobenefits include reduced water, fertilizer, and pesticide consumption, improved soil health and crop productivity, and meaningful revenue or energy cost savings for farmers.

(c) Agrivoltaics can promote California agriculture by helping farmers keep their land in productive agricultural use, rather than being converted to alternate land uses due to cost pressures, water availability, or commercial development.

(d) California faces significant energy reliability challenges and agrivoltaics offer an important use case for combined solar and energy storage systems, promoting energy resilience in rural communities, and protecting the food supply chain.

(e)Agrivoltaics offer a promising win-win solution that experts say could be applied across 8,100 square miles of United States farmland, mostly in the western states where irrigated agriculture is most common, generating 1,350 gigawatthours of clean electricity, which is more than enough to power every home in the country.
~~(f)~~

(e) Development of agrivoltaic systems can also further the goal of conservation of 30 percent of California’s working lands by 2030.

~~(g)~~

(f) Agrivoltaic systems should be developed in a manner that protects agricultural lands and production of agricultural commodities. The state should use its authority under state programs and policies to ensure the avoidance, minimization, and mitigation of significant adverse impacts on working lands and agricultural production, and monitoring and adaptive management of agrivoltaic systems and their associated infrastructure.

SEC. 2.

Section 25238 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

25238.

(a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) “Agrivoltaic system” means a dual-use solar energy system and agricultural activities colocated in specified areas of land, whereby elevated solar photovoltaic panels are installed above active agricultural lands, at heights and configurations that ensure the simultaneous use of the land for agricultural activities beneath or between rows of solar photovoltaic panels.

(2) “Limited-resource farmer or rancher” has the same meaning as set forth in Section 760.107 of Title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

(3) “Socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher” has the same meaning as set forth in Section 512 of the Food and Agricultural Code.

(b) (1) The commission shall award grants for agrivoltaic system projects pursuant to this section to support research and development in agrivoltaic systems.

(2) An agrivoltaic system project awarded grant funding pursuant to this section shall be used to study both of the following:

(A) The economic, social, energy, and agricultural productivity impacts of agrivoltaic systems on farms and the state’s agricultural economy, to the extent funding is available, in different regions of the state with different climate conditions, and to study the impact of agrivoltaic systems on electricity generated from solar panels.

(B) Agrivoltaic systems’ potential to reduce the impacts of extreme heat on crops, livestock, and agricultural workers.

(c) Eligible grant recipients include, but are not limited to, the University of California, the California State University, community colleges, and nonprofit organizations.

(d) The commission, in consultation with the Department of Food and Agriculture, shall develop guidelines and criteria for determining a project’s eligibility for grant funding pursuant to this section.

(e) (1) The commission shall conduct an evaluation of the grant program. For purposes of the evaluation, the commission shall do all of the following:

(A) Monitor the quality of the agricultural output of farms with agrivoltaic systems.

(B) Consider the location and diversity of agricultural production operations throughout the state.

(C) Consider impacts on crop productivity, soil health, cultivation practices, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), and microclimatic conditions across diverse farming systems and agrivoltaic system designs.

(D) Consider impacts and implications for the economy, including on-farm economics and the agricultural economy, and public welfare.

(E) Assess the state’s needs for both energy and food production, available land and existing land use competition, annual solar radiation, the percentage of ground covered by solar panels, and the available area per farm that is able to support an agrivoltaic system.

(F) Assess the role agrivoltaic systems could play in meeting the state’s energy, climate, and food production goals.

(G) Assess the feasibility, cost implications, and efficiency of agrivoltaic system technology, including potential energy yields from farmland with consideration for the state’s energy demands, increased land use efficiencies, potential reductions in the amount of water required for irrigation, and the potential impact on utility rates.

(H) Assess the cost of capital investments and potential cost implications considering the full lifespan of agrivoltaic system technology.

(I) Assess and make recommendations regarding solar design and crop layout and rotations for different climates within the state, to the extent funding is available.

(J) Assess irrigation practices and technology suitable for crops used under solar panels.

(K) Assess needs for harvesting under solar panels versus traditional agriculture.

(L) Identify an appropriate length of time for the grant program to ensure meaningful results.

(M) Assess the impacts of agrivoltaic systems on wildlife.

(N) Make recommendations for solar system design and crop layout and rotations for different climates within the state to maximize the benefits for agricultural use.

(O) Establish new crop-based suitability maps with agrivoltaic installations and identify areas most suited for dual use based on climate, soil, dominant crops, and socioeconomics.

(2) The commission shall make the evaluation described in this subdivision publicly available on the commission’s internet website.

(f) The commission, in consultation with the Department of Food and Agriculture, shall do ~~all~~ both of the following for purposes of the grant program:

(1) ~~Maximize~~ Optimize the benefits ~~of the grant program~~ for farmland from projects provided grants pursuant to this section in terms of agricultural production and water ~~savings.~~ savings, and optimize energy generation from the projects, so long as the requirements of this paragraph do not reduce the research value of the projects.

~~(2)Optimize energy production for maximizing land productivity to achieve the maximum crop and energy production and save water.~~
~~(3)~~

(2) Collaborate with farmers in the development and implementation of the grant program, including, but not limited to, limited-resource farmers or ranchers and socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers.

(4)Ensure that farmers and ranchers participating in the grant program do not lose designation of land used for an agrivoltaic system as land being used for agriculture and do not receive adverse tax treatment for participating in the grant program.

(g) Notwithstanding any other law, land that is zoned for agricultural use or otherwise designated as agricultural land shall not lose that designation because of an agrivoltaic system project funded pursuant to this section.

(h) The implementation of this section is contingent upon an appropriation of funds by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute for purposes of this section.