Solargation® mark Solargation® by Phoebus
Food + Agriculture + Energy

Farmer First Energy solutions that add a net agricultural gain.

Solargation® results in significant yield-impact growth. A 100 MW example of current energy generation technologies shows that Solargation® creates a net benefit to crops!

View comparison What it means
Yield accounting method

The benchmark starts with 100 MW energy development yield units of baseline farm output.

i

Baseline farm output on 100 MW = MW/acre-equivalent yield units.

Net crop impact = output after development minus baseline output. Negative values mean yield lost; positive values mean yield gained.

Same 100 MW comparison area

Different technologies create very different agricultural yield outcomes.

1

Traditional solar PV

Direct site footprint: approximately 400 acres.

Active crop yield on occupied land: typically minimal if ordinary farming stops.

-400 acre-equivalent yield
2

Diesel turbine / generator

Direct site footprint: approximately 12 acres.

-12 acre-equivalent yield
3

Natural gas turbine

Direct site footprint: approximately 11 acres.

-11 acre-equivalent yield
4

Yield-enhancing Solargation®

Direct dual-use footprint: approximately 700 acres at 7 acres per MW.

1 Base retained farm output: 630 acre-equivalent yield.
2 +84 from precision irrigation / fertigation (+12%).
3 +63 from soil-analytics nutrient management (+9%).
4 Total farm output shown: 777 acre-equivalent yield.
+77 acre-equivalent yield Net 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.

777 total farm output shown in acre-equivalent yield
+11% versus baseline in the illustrated comparison
Sources and Methodology

Built directly from primary research around the world.

The methodology of acre-yield equivelents is based on USDA, EIA, and University research from around the globe.

Sources Used: 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%.