https://science.feedback.org/will-solar-panels-overrun-farmland-the-two-are-more-likely-to-coexist/ 🥔🌾🌽 Will a transition to renewable energy result in solar panels sprawling across farmland, chopping off precious food supply? On the contrary, the data suggests that solar panels and agriculture can *peacefully coexist.* Solar panels don’t use up much land today. Across the U.S., solar panels account for a small fraction of the land that agriculture does, even when counting planned panels that aren’t on the grid yet. In the UK, present and future solar combined still take up less land than airports or golf courses do. And the data doesn’t show any notable impacts on food. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that, even in a future where 45% of U.S. electricity comes from solar power, solar panels will still take up only *0.5% of U.S. land* . In comparison, 43% of U.S. land today is arable. Although solar panel construction can damage the land if done irresponsibly, the panels themselves aren’t toxic. In fact, farmers can still use the land between and beneath the panels – both for growing crops and for grazing livestock. This practice is known as *agrivoltaics* . Although agrivoltaics is still quite rare today, studies have shown that many plants can benefit from the partial shade that solar panels bring.