1
Traditional solar PV
Direct site footprint: approximately 700 acres.
Active crop yield on occupied land: typically minimal if ordinary farming stops.
-700acre-equivalent yield
Food + Agriculture + Energy
Crop impact can shift from farmland displacement to net agricultural gain.
This page translates the provided infographic into a web-ready Solargation® yield-impact comparison, showing the illustrative crop-yield effect on the same 700 acres required for a 100 MW solar array using 7 acres per MW.
Yield accounting method
The benchmark starts with 700 acre-equivalent yield units of baseline farm output.
Baseline farm output on 700 acres = 700 acre-equivalent yield units.
Net crop impact = output after development minus baseline output. Negative values mean yield lost; positive values mean yield gained.
Same 700-acre comparison area
Different technologies create very different agricultural yield outcomes.
The cards below preserve the structure and numbers shown in the infographic while adapting them into a responsive HTML5 page that matches the prior Solargation® website style and behavior.
2
Diesel turbine / generator
Direct site footprint: approximately 12 acres.
Remaining farmland still producing: approximately 688 acres.
-12acre-equivalent yield
3
Natural gas turbine
Direct site footprint: approximately 11 acres.
Remaining farmland still producing: approximately 689 acres.
-11acre-equivalent yield
4
Yield-enhancing Solargation®
Direct dual-use footprint: approximately 700 acres at 7 acres per MW.
Crop production retained: across the full site.
1Base retained farm output: 700 acre-equivalent yield.
2+84 from precision irrigation / fertigation (+12%).
3+63 from soil-analytics nutrient management (+9%).
4Total farm output shown: 847 acre-equivalent yield.
+147acre-equivalent yieldNet agricultural gain
What the comparison means
Keeping the whole field productive changes the agricultural economics.
Core takeaway
- Traditional solar causes the largest crop-yield loss on this 700-acre farmland basis.
- Diesel and natural gas have small direct yield losses because their plant footprints are small.
- Solargation® keeps the whole site in production and, under the illustrated research-based assumptions, raises total farm output above baseline.
Important note
The Solargation® yield gain shown here is illustrative, not universal. Actual results vary by crop, climate, layout, irrigation demand, and management quality. The irrigation and nutrient-management uplifts are simplified from agricultural research and shown as a transparent comparison assumption.
From displaced production to increased farm output.
The Solargation® case shown here preserves baseline production across the full site, then layers on yield improvements from precision irrigation, fertigation, and soil-analytics nutrient management to move total output above the original 700-acre benchmark.
847total farm output shown in acre-equivalent yield
+21%versus baseline in the illustrated comparison
Sources and support
Built directly from the provided crops comparison.
This page keeps the exact comparison logic, yield math, and source framing from the comparison graphic and converts it into an editable, responsive HTML5 page using the same Solargation® website theme as the other comparison pages.
Sources listed in the infographic: NREL (2013) for utility-scale PV land use of roughly 7–9 acres/MWac; Jacobson / Stanford land-footprint compilation for fossil plant direct land factors around 0.12 acres/MW for diesel and 0.11 acres/MW for natural gas; USDA Climate Hubs and USDA ARS for agrivoltaics keeping working lands productive and precision agriculture / soil testing improving input management; University of Arizona / Barron-Gafford agrivoltaic field study showing tomatoes 2×, chiltepin 3×, and jalapeños similar yield with 65% less transpirational water loss; Li et al., Agricultural Water Management (2021) for drip fertigation meta-analysis finding about +12% yield; and Herrmann et al. (2024) for placed starter fertilization meta-analysis finding about +9.4% yield, shown here as +9%.
A clean downloadable comparison graphic is included in the website assets for presentation use.
Why the Solargation® result is positive.The illustrative case retains the full site in production, then adds +12% irrigation / fertigation uplift and +9% soil-analytics nutrient-management uplift to move the total from 700 to 847 acre-equivalent yield.
Download graphic
Download the crops comparison graphic.
This PNG summarizes crop-output preservation and potential crop uplift from Solargation® dual-use design compared with single-use energy technologies.
Explore the crops-impact case
A clearer web presentation for the Solargation® food and crops story.
This version keeps the same formatting logic and coding behavior as the prior Solargation® website packages while turning the crops infographic into a practical website page for presentation, editing, and publishing.
Back to top