In the 2024-25 academic year, a group of students led by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, Keough School of Global Affairs, conducted a research project examining agrivoltaics practices and policies in several European countries to craft a policy brief relevant to the context of the State of Indiana. This brief, now published in the Keough School of Global Affairs Publication Series, summarizes their findings and provides several policy recommendations for Indiana. The student team hopes to have the opportunity to present these findings to the Indiana State Legislature in the future.
Indiana consistently ranks among the top states for agricultural production in the United States. However, increasing energy demands and a growing push to transition to land-intensive clean energy sources have seemingly placed the state’s agriculture and energy sectors in direct opposition. Agrivoltaics, however, might be a solution. It is the dual use of land for agricultural production and solar energy generation, which can be adjusted to local crop types and climate conditions, uniquely positioning it to meet growing energy demands without sacrificing valuable farmland. Recognizing the need to align policy across these two major sectors, the Nanovic Institute launched an agrivoltaics policy project during the 2024-25 academic year to develop a policy framework capable of facilitating the implementation of this emerging technology, which has the potential to integrate agriculture and energy generation in Indiana.
Over the academic year, an interdisciplinary group of student researchers led by Morgan Munsen, senior research and partnerships program manager, and Ph.D. student Elsa Barron looked to Europe—which has seen a strong uptake of agrivoltaics in the last decade—to analyze the characteristics of successful deployment. With students representing multiple disciplines, the team brought engineering, environmental, economic, and legal perspectives to case studies of Germany, Italy, France, and the Netherlands, identifying opportunities to adapt European policy models to Indiana’s economic and regulatory landscape.
The goal is that Indiana and the Midwest as a whole can use the framework to meet increasing energy demands with clean energy sources that work in harmony with the region’s critical agricultural production.
Drawing on this research, the team presented their findings at the 2025 Nanovic Institute Undergraduate Research Conference. They demonstrated how agrivoltaics installations have increased farmer revenue in Italy, analyzed how tax incentives have helped farmers recoup initial investments in Germany, and reviewed how multilateral collaborations between national agencies and research institutes have advanced regional understanding of well-suited system makeups in the Netherlands. Ultimately, the team summarized the agrivoltaics landscape in Europe and made a case for the viability of leveraging similar approaches in Indiana.
The team synthesized their results into a policy brief published in the Keough School of Global Affairs Publication Series. The brief recommends a tailored three-tiered approach to help Indiana’s Office of Energy Development and several Indiana Legislative Committees:
- Establish clear standards and definitions for agrivoltaics;
- Establish an incentive structure to prioritize high-performing agrivoltaic installations; and
- Harness Indiana’s research and organizational capacity for multilateral collaboration.
Such an approach can help to ensure farmers and solar developers have transparent criteria to aim for when developing their agrivoltaics systems, can overcome the high initial investment, and receive guidance from cutting-edge research on best practices for crop selection and solar panel arrangement, all while legislators and regulatory authorities have measurable targets with which to certify these systems and direct incentives.
Equipped with evidence from Europe and a strategic framework for how policy can be mapped onto an Indiana context, the team plans to present their work to the Indiana State Legislature. The goal is that Indiana and the Midwest as a whole can use the framework to meet increasing energy demands with clean energy sources that work in harmony with the region’s critical agricultural production.