Agrivoltaics in Virginia

With 'Agrivoltaics,' Farmers Can Grow Both Food and Energy

World Resources Institute | Lilyana Gabrielse and Jenn Tribble

August 12, 2026

As U.S. farmers face rising costs and threats to their land, on-farm solar panels may offer a critical lifeline.

Visitors to Roundabout Meadows farm in rural Virginia are greeted by rows of tomatoes, squash, peppers, eggplants and leafy greens. But not long ago, this land faced a very different future.

As northern Virginia’s Loudoun County expanded, the property was slated for housing and retail development. Instead, the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), a local organization, stepped in to protect the landscape, preserving 172 acres and creating Roundabout Meadows, now home to an 8-acre community farm. The decision was celebrated by nearby residents, conservation advocates, and visitors who value northern Virginia’s rural character.

Although Roundabout Meadows itself is relatively new, it is rooted in a region shaped by generations of farming, livestock grazing, viticulture and wildlife stewardship. Four staff members and hundreds of volunteers cultivate healthy soils and grow vegetables using sustainable practices. Almost everything harvested is donated to local food pantries and hunger relief organizations, amounting to nearly 240,000 pounds of fresh produce since 2019. 

Roundabout Meadows is doing something else impressive as well: generating clean, affordable power through an emerging practice known as “agrivoltaics.”

Driven by the belief that farmers and communities should not have to choose between producing food and generating clean energy, the community farm at Roundabout Meadows became Virginia’s first crop-producing “agrivoltaics” site in 2025. With technical assistance from the National Laboratory of the Rockies’ Clean Energy to Communities program, the farm installed a 17-kilowatt solar array consisting of 42 panels, paired with 23 kilowatts of battery storage. The system generates enough power to meet the farm’s annual needs, with some capacity to spare.

Eighteen different crops now grow between the rows of solar panels, allowing the farm to continue producing food while advancing research on agrivoltaics. Teddy Pitsiokos, Roundabout Meadows’ farm manager, is monitoring crop performance to identify which varieties thrive under solar panels, while scientists from Virginia Tech conduct annual soil testing to ensure the land remains healthy and free of contaminants. This research is helping to build trust among the community and demonstrate that integrating solar on cropland can advance clean energy goals without compromising agricultural productivity.

While the community farm at Roundabout Meadows does not add capacity to the electric grid, it demonstrates how solar panels can coexist with working farmland— and, in some cases, even improve growing conditions. In doing so, the project offers a practical solution to one of the most contentious debates facing rural communities: How can we expand clean energy while preserving agricultural land and local character? 

Those concerns have become increasingly pronounced. As efforts to halt renewable energy development spread across the United States, debates over land use, the industrialization of open space, and who benefits from clean energy development have intensified. For many residents, skepticism is not simply about the technology itself, but about how and where it is deployed, as well as who benefits. These conversations are especially important as rapid data center growth increases attention on electricity demand, land use and utility bills.

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