This resource, A Quick Guide to Agrivoltaics Monitoring & Research Design, developed in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, provides producers, researchers, and land managers with the core principles for reliably tracking agricultural and ecological outcomes in agrivoltaic systems. This resource outlines why consistent, comparable data collection matters, which variables should be monitored across soil, crops and vegetation, water, wildlife, and livestock, and how to design sampling that accurately reflects the unique microclimates created by solar arrays.

In agrivoltaics, monitoring isn’t just a scientific exercise; it’s foundational to understanding productivity, animal welfare, ecological function, and long-term system performance. Because agrivoltaic sites behave differently from natural or conventional agricultural landscapes, standardized methods are essential. This guide explains how goal definition, clear variable selection, and thoughtful spatial and temporal design lead to meaningful insights. It also highlights the importance of microzone sampling for capturing true diversity across solar sites.

If you’re managing or researching agricultural production under solar infrastructure, this quick guide is a must-read for building a robust monitoring program, improving decision-making, and ensuring your data contributes to a broader, comparable body of knowledge that strengthens the future of agrivoltaics.

You can read and download A Quick Guide to Agrivoltaics Monitoring & Research Design below:

Authors
Alyssa Andrew
Anna Clare Monlezun, PhD
Stacie Peterson, PhD

Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the role of the American Solar Grazing Association Board of Directors and Senior Director, Kevin Richardson, The Nature Conservancy’s Justin Loyka, Randall Ceneus, Morgan Higman, Corinna Riginos, JJ Autry, Liz Kalies, and Harold Eyster, for their visionary input, review, and provision of feedback during the development of this report. We would also like to thank Lee Walston for the external peer review of this guide and Bridgett Owen-Chase for the graphic design work.

This work was completed in partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) under Contract No. WY-08-2025. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the TNC in Wyoming and Florida through their Climate Action and Renewable Energy (CARE) programs.

Bibliography
¹Bacon, Taylor, Timothy Ohlert, Christopher Toy, J Alexander Siggers, and Matthew A Sturchio. 2024. “Network Science Can Improve the Sustainable Development of Solar Energy.” Environmental Research: Energy 1 (4): 043002.https://doi.org/10.1088/2753-3751/ad99dc.

²Arciszewski, T. J., D. R. Roberts, A. Mahaffey, and R. R. O. Hazewinkel. 2023. “Distinguishing between Research and Monitoring Programs in Environmental Science and Management.” Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 13 (4): 674–81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-023-00859-0.

³University of California. 2025. “SMART Goals: A How to Guide.” Accessed September 24, 2025. https://www.ucop.edu/local-human-resources/_files/performance-appraisal/How+to+write+SMART+Goals+v2.pdf.

⁴Jones, Kristal, Willow Grinnell, and Katie Epstein. 2024. Priorities, Needs, and Motivations of Ranchers for Monitoring. https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/Ranch_Monitoring_Report_FINAL_022124.pdf.

⁵Andrew, Alyssa, Anna Clare Monlezun, Jordan Macknick, Greg Plotkin, and Stacie Peterson. 2025. “Means and Metrics: The Standard Checklist for Solar Grazing.” American Solar Grazing Association. https://solargrazing.org/solar-grazing-checklist

⁶Green, Roger H. 1989. “Power Analysis and Practical Strategies for Environmental Monitoring.” Environmental Research 50 (1): 195–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0013-9351(89)80058-1.

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Additional Resources

Solar Soil: Ground-Mounted Solar and Soil Related Ecosystem Services (Argonne National Laboratory)