PV agrivoltaics could revitalize Brazilian crops

Agriculture accounts for 21.5% of Brazil’s gross domestic product and 27% of its emissions. PV companies are now targeting an industry that represents 14% of the nation’s small-scale installations. With credit incentives and growing familiarity with the technology, agribusinesses and solar specialists are discovering new opportunities for collaboration.

Agriculture is a main economic activity of Brazil and is expected to produce BRL 2.46 trillion ($439 billion) of goods in 2024, according to estimates by the Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics of the University of S?o Paulo (USP). The academics estimate that farming will generate BRL 1.65 trillion and livestock BRL 801 billion, including machinery and service costs.

The Climate Observatory, a Brazilian NGO, estimates that 617 million tons of the total 2.3 billion gross tons of CO2 equivalent emitted by Brazil in 2022 came from agriculture. Deforestation, the nation’s top source of emissions, at 1.12 billion tons of CO2 equivalent in 2022, primarily results from clearing land for new pasture and crop fields.

The BRL 2.46 trillion figure fell from BRL 2.67 trillion in 2023, due to crop failures from climate change and the El Ni?o effect. Severe drought in midwestern Brazil and unprecedented storms in the south affected the largest soy-producing regions.

In this context, solar-powered irrigation boosts farming productivity and reduces environmental impacts. Leasing land for solar panels provides stable revenue for farmers, especially in low- or zero-productivity areas, and public and private initiatives are promoting this model.

Policy resources

In July 2024, Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock allocated BRL 508.59 billion to support agribusiness projects. The RenovAgro credit line, a key component of the plan, can finance renewable systems and other practices that lower greenhouse gas emissions.

“Photovoltaic technology is extremely versatile and can be used, for example, for pumping and irrigating water, cooling meat, milk, and other products, regulating the temperature for poultry production, lighting, electric fences, telecommunication systems, and monitoring rural property, among many other features,” said Ronaldo Koloszuk, chairman of Brazil’s solar industry association, Absolar.

Irrigation tech

Irrigation technology is one of the main methods for increasing agricultural productivity and reducing climate impact on crops. Availability of electricity is one of the barriers limiting the expansion of watering technology, especially through the use of irrigation pivots, which involve long sprinkler lines rotating around a center point.

Normative Resolution 1,000/2021, introduced by electricity regulator Aneel, legislated an electricity tariff encouraging nighttime energy use for irrigation and aquaculture. To be eligible, a consumer must have a connection installed exclusively to feed the system responsible for pumping and distributing water.

To ensure that the use of water is in line with preservation of the environment, it is necessary to hold an environmental license and the right to use water resources or to have an exemption from such requirements.

The growth potential of irrigation pivots in agricultural states is considerable. US-based irrigation equipment manufacturer Lindsay Corp. says the Brazilian state of Paraná, with almost 15 million hectares of farmland, has less than 2% of its arable area irrigated. In S?o Paulo, the state government aims to increase the scale of its irrigated farmland by more than 2 million hectares. Currently, irrigation covers only 6% of S?o Paulo’s plantation area and the goal is to reach 15% by 2030. Mato Grosso now has 178,000 hectares under irrigation and could expand that to 3.9 million hectares.

Agricultural niche

Incentives like low interest rates, extended payment terms, and grace periods have prompted several solar companies to target Brazil’s agriculture industry. For example, solar equipment distributor Genyx launched a new business unit in 2023, featuring a dedicated agricultural team and a much more tailored approach to the sector.

“Companies want to sell by phone, by WhatsApp,” said Genyx Director of Institutional Relations Bruno Catta Preta. “We first go to the rural union and approach the sellers of other equipment and inputs. Producers don’t want a PowerPoint in their email; they want to have a coffee and to talk eye to eye. They’re also not scared off by investments of BRL 700,000 or BRL 800,000 because they’re used to spending money on expensive equipment like pivots, trucks, and harvesters.”

Catta Preta explained that irrigation pivots, for example, are costly pieces of equipment that utilities often struggle to keep connected. In addition, the poor quality of the electricity transmission network that reaches rural properties via the utility grid is an incentive to adopt not only solar systems but also batteries.

“Distribution lines in the rural segment are long and almost always a single line,” said Silvio Robusti, senior product marketing manager for Chinese inverter maker Growatt. “There are few connections and they are prone to major oscillation since they cover long distances and have a low density of consumers per kilometer. Maintenance is also more complex, the quality of the electricity is worse than in large urban centers, and considerable electrical disturbances are common. In some cases, these properties can be left in the dark for up to a day-and-a-half.”

Growatt supplied inverters for a 24 kW off-grid solar project installed on a farm in the municipality of Tatuí, in the interior of S?o Paulo state. It enabled the drilling of an artesian well for access to drinking water as well as the construction of two houses on the site.

“In the beginning there was no basic infrastructure such as water and electricity, which made it unfeasible to build two houses for the family to live in on the property,” said Oscar Makoto Kojima, the off-grid engineer responsible for the project. “The client also made a comparison of connecting to the electricity grid of the power distribution company onsite but the cost would have been too high and the process too time consuming. He then opted for an off-grid PV system integrated with batteries.” The site features four 9.6 kWh Dyness lithium batteries and 54 JinkoSolar modules, each rated at 440 W.

In the northeastern state of Bahia, cotton producer Sementec Group’s Dom Perignon farm doubled its soybean harvest with a solar-powered irrigation system and reduced diesel consumption by 70%. The project was installed by Loop Energia and is supplied by eight artesian wells, seven central irrigation pivots, and three storage pools with a total capacity of 600 million liters. It is served by a private, 21 km, 34.5 kV medium-voltage network.

The off-grid system includes 1.2 MW of solar capacity with more than 2,000 JA Solar bifacial modules, each rated at 545 W. It also features nine PHB inverters and five diesel generators – three with 700 kW of capacity each and two with 550 kW of capacity each.

With more than 900 hectares of soybean plantations, the farm is using sunlight to increase productivity and reduce production costs, said Loop Energia CEO Luvanio Lopes. Daily diesel consumption of 4,000 liters has fallen to 1,000 liters, representing monthly savings of BRL 500,000. Smart grid technology has made it possible to increase soybean production from between 40 and 60 bags per hectare to more than 100 bags per hectare per harvest.

State programs

In September 2023, the state government of Ceará approved the Renda do Sol Project, which supports the implementation of PV systems for small farmers and low-income families throughout the state.

“In the future, we want the state of Ceará and city halls to buy the energy,” said Governor Elmano de Freitas. “This is very important for our development. To do this, we want to train these families and make it possible for them to get financing for their solar power plants.”

Under the project plan, two pilots will initially be set up in the municipalities of Jaguaribara and Tamboril, where more than 160 families are involved in fruit, vegetable, and dairy production. The expectation is that the monthly income of those families will increase by more than 50% with the additional funds that are generated by the program.

In December 2023, the state government of Minas Gerais approved the Minas Gerais Rural Renewable Energy Program, which provides tax incentives for agricultural producers, including family farmers and agri-ecological users of renewable energy.

Brazil’s states also offer specific lines of finance for the sector. The Paraná Renewable Energy (RenovaPR) program, for example, financed 462 small-scale solar generation projects in the first quarter of 2024 alone, at a cost of BRL 44.5 million.

The Paulista Sustainable Rural Development credit line released BRL 10.3 million to 109 producers in 52 municipalities in the state of S?o Paulo in 2023 for renewable energy activity. In 2022, BRL 13.6 million was made available to 115 producers in 69 municipalities.

Agrivoltaic pilots

A partnership between power company Cemig, Minas Gerais Agricultural Research Company, and the Telecommunications Research and Development Center will bring together solar and crop-farming on the same land, increasing the value of land use and enabling the development of innovative business models. The total investment is around BRL 10.5 million and the research will be carried out over 30 months.

“We will carry out a complete assessment of the agrivoltaics system customized for Minas Gerais, involving technical, regulatory, and economic-financial aspects from the perspectives of the rural producer, the energy distributor, and the provider of the integrated system solution,” said the telecom research organization’s commercial manager, Carlos Alberto Previdelli.

Sunfarming, a German company specializing in 1 MW systems that optimize the use of light for solar generation and plant cultivation, aims to develop 4 GW of agrivoltaic generation capacity in four Brazilian states. In Pará, it intends to develop as much as 1 GW, starting in Belterra, where it can install up to 30 MW of sites in combination with land reforestation. The company is also developing projects in Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, and Ceará.