Valuing Agrivoltaics on Agricultural Land: Evidence from a National Discrete Choice Experiment on Food, Energy, and Development Tradeoffs

The expansion of utility-scale solar energy is expected to require millions of acres of land in the United States, increasing pressure on agricultural landscapes and raising concerns regarding farmland preservation, rural identity, and food production. Agrivoltaics, which combines agricultural production and solar energy generation on the same parcel of land, has been proposed as a strategy to reduce land-use conflicts between renewable energy development and agriculture. While previous studies find that the public generally prefers agrivoltaics to conventional utility-scale solar, little evidence exists regarding how consumers value agrivoltaics relative to continued agricultural production or other competing land uses. This study evaluates public acceptance of agrivoltaics using a discrete choice experiment administered to 6,332 adult consumers across thirty-seven U.S. states with commercial apple production. Respondents repeatedly chose whether to purchase apples from farm stands associated with traditional apple production, agrivoltaics, utility-scale solar, or residential development. Choice attributes also varied the share of land-use revenues accruing to farmers, subsidy status, travel time, and apple price. The survey incorporated randomized information treatments and elicited measures of risk preferences and social preferences. Results indicate substantial heterogeneity in willingness to pay for agrivoltaics. On average, respondents prefer maintaining agricultural production relative to converting farmland to utility scale solar or residential development. Willingness to pay for agrivoltaics is not statistically different from continued agricultural production in the full sample. However, urban respondents exhibit a positive willingness to pay for agrivoltaics, whereas rural respondents exhibit a negative willingness to pay. Higher farmer revenue shares significantly increase support for land-use change, while the absence of subsidies reduces acceptance of solar-related development. Additional analyses indicate that support for agrivoltaics varies systematically with political ideology and risk preferences. The findings suggest that public acceptance of renewable-energy development on agricultural land depends not only on energy production outcomes but also on perceptions of agricultural land as a provider of public goods and on the distribution of economic benefits associated with land-use change. Policies that preserve agricultural functions, support increased and transparent revenues for farmers, and account for place-based differences in public preferences may improve acceptance of agrivoltaic development during the renewable-energy transition.