Agrivoltaics Can Improve Farmworker Comfort

Research presented at the American Geophysical Union’s 2025 Annual Meeting reveals how solar panels over crops can improve field conditions for farmworkers. Worker-reported benefits include shelter from the sun, cooler drinking water and reduced fatigue, while physical measurements indicate the panels can help farms avoid conditions conducive to dangerous heat stress. These mitigating factors can be significant, especially as farmworkers are 35 times more likely to die from heat-related illness than non-agricultural workers. In this study, agrivoltaics reduced wet bulb globe temperature in the field by as much as 5.5 degrees Celsius. Talitha Neesham-McTiernan, a human-environment researcher at the University of Arizona who led the research, explains that this could be the difference between stop-work conditions for farmworkers and simply requiring a break every hour.

Related NCAT publication: Solar Panel Shade and Potential Health Impacts