What Minnesota’s Agrivoltaics Boom Means for Alabama’s Black Belt

A story out of Minnesota shows what agrivoltaics looks like when it is working. The state now has 260 dual-use solar sites, generating 1,228 megawatts across more than 7,000 acres. One grazing operation grew from 20 sheep to more than 2,200 head of sheep and goats, all working solar fields. For rural communities building an energy transition that benefits the people on the land, this is what success looks like.

Minnesota accounts for nearly half of the 666 agrivoltaics sites in the United States. Cannon Valley Graziers, run by Arlo Hark and Josie Trople, scaled from a flock of 20 sheep to more than 2,200 sheep and goats, grazing just under 2,000 acres of solar projects across the Upper Midwest in 2024. Big River Farms grows vegetables on the same parcels that make electricity, and Bare Honey keeps bees in native plantings beneath the arrays. Researchers at the University of Minnesota-Morris and the Center for Rural Affairs are documenting what works. The model is real and replicable.

Agrivoltaics works because it treats land as capable of doing two things at once. Panels provide shade that can increase some crop yields during drought. Sheep keep vegetation managed without herbicides. Bees find habitat in native plantings beneath the arrays. Farmers collect income from the land lease and from their product. The dual-use approach does not force rural communities to choose between food and energy. Land that feeds people can also power communities.

At Little USA Solar in Union Springs, Alabama, we are building toward this same model in the Black Belt. Our region has the land, the agricultural history, and the communities that stand to gain the most from agrivoltaics done right. The Black Belt was the agricultural heart of the South. Bringing dual-use solar here means connecting local farmers to a system that respects the land and builds real economic opportunity in a region that deserves both.

The path from 20 sheep to 2,200 sheep and goats starts with one flock and one field. What Minnesota proved is that the model scales. We are working to prove the same in Bullock County.