It’s cranberry season in southeastern Massachusetts. At bogs throughout the region, growers are collecting the ruby-red berries destined for holiday cakes, juice bottles, and cans of jellied sauce. At two farms, however, the harvesting process looks a little different: Pickers are navigating equipment around metal poles in the shade of solar panels.
The two bogs are the first in the country — perhaps the world — to grow cranberries beneath an operating solar installation. This fall marks the second season cranberries have been harvested from beneath the panels.
“We are literally proving it can be done,” said Prateek Tare, co-founder and executive vice president of Distributed Energy Infrastructure. His company constructed the two projects — a 4.4-megawatt array paired with a 13.5-megawatt-hour battery in the town of Kingston, and a 1-MW solar array in neighboring Plymouth.
Solar development is a major part of Massachusetts’ plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The state has offered solar incentives since 2001, evolving and expanding them over the decades to drive even more development.
However, the question of where to site solar projects has become a major point of contention in the densely populated and heavily wooded state. Building on rooftops and parking lots in developed areas can increase costs and limit generation capacity. But proposals for arrays on previously undeveloped land often spark protests from locals worried about the character of their community and environmental groups opposed to disrupting ecosystems. Using pre-cleared farmland has potential, but raises concerns about taking agricultural acres out of production.
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