Farming the sun twice: India writes the rulebook for solar panels over crops

A field can grow food and make electricity at the same time — panels raised above crops, farming continuing underneath. That idea, called agrivoltaics, got a policy push in India today. Hosting the 7th Global AgriPhotovoltaic Conference in New Delhi — the first time it has been held in a developing country — India's renewable-energy ministry said it is building the framework, regulations and standards needed to take farm-solar beyond pilot projects, drawing on practice from France, Germany, the USA and South Korea. The backdrop is scale: India has about 308 gigawatts of non-fossil power capacity, added about 56 gigawatts last year alone, and is aiming for 500 gigawatts by 2030. Done well, panels over fields give farmers a second income from the same land without giving up the harvest.

SDG 7 · Affordable and clean energy — Mechanism: policy reform