{"id":274705,"date":"2026-06-17T11:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/17\/agrivoltaics-can-both-power-ai-data-centres-and-increase-food-production-new-study\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T15:12:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T19:12:05","slug":"agrivoltaics-can-both-power-ai-data-centres-and-increase-food-production-new-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/17\/agrivoltaics-can-both-power-ai-data-centres-and-increase-food-production-new-study\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Agrivoltaics\u2019 can both power AI data centres and increase food production \u2014 new study"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Agrivoltaics\u2019 can both power AI data centres and increase food production \u2014 new study<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/theconversation.com\/agrivoltaics-can-both-power-ai-data-centres-and-increase-food-production-new-study-285027<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-17 11:37:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence (AI) use is exploding. More than 50 per cent of new internet content was generated by AI in 2025, according to an industry report. We even train AI on AI-generated content now and, although this can degrade performance, it continues at breakneck pace. <\/p>\n

All this AI is consuming a lot of energy. It\u2019s straining the electrical system, raising consumer electricity costs and breaking large-scale electrical grid planning. And the \u201cAI energy crisis\u201d is deepening. The International Energy Agency predicts that global electricity demand from data centres will double by 2030, to more than the electricity consumption of Japan today.<\/p>\n

At the same time, solar photovoltaic technology \u2014 which uses the sun\u2019s energy to generate electricity \u2014 offers the cheapest energy in the history of the planet. The sector is growing rapidly. However, both solar and AI projects threaten to take over valuable agricultural land, generating public protests. <\/p>\n

A new study I co-authored reveals \u201cagrivoltaics\u201d \u2014 the use of land for both electricity generation and food production \u2014 to be a very promising solution. <\/p>\n

In the first study of its kind, we found agrivoltaics to be a viable way to meet growing AI energy demands in the United States, while also increasing food production.<\/p>\n

In Canada, agrivoltaics could produce enough electricity to eliminate the need for fossil fuels on the grid entirely, using less than one per cent of the country\u2019s agriculture land. <\/p>\n


\n Read more:
\n The gift that keeps on giving: How solar panels on farms can help increase crop yields
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Solar panel fences<\/h2>\n

Agrivoltaics allows farming communities to generate photovoltaic-based electricity while continuing to produce food, sometimes with even higher yields than before. <\/p>\n