Agrivoltaics Gaining Ground With US Financiers

• KeyBank and U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance to finance 5 agrivoltaic projects in Massachusetts  
• BlueWave plans to bring online 20 MW capacity with this financing by the end of 2023  
• The company says the projects are uniquely designed to enable uninterrupted farming operations and also create a new grazing pasture 

US-based solar developer BlueWave has raised a $91 million financing to advance its portfolio of 20 MW agrivoltaic project capacity, in the making for many years, to bring it online by the end of 2023.  

The $64 million debt financing from KeyBank and $27 million tax equity raise from U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance will be used to construct the 5 agrivoltaic projects in Massachusetts. These will be part of the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) Program. 

BlueWave shares that of these 5 projects, 4 are uniquely designed to allow for uninterrupted farming operations beneath the solar arrays, and the 5th facility will create a new grazing pasture.  

Selected with help from the American Farmland Trust and the University of Massachusetts researchers, all the sites feature a varied selection of crops, pollinator habitats and livestock grazing operations.  

Altogether, these facilities will deliver enough clean energy to the grid to power 2,570 local households. BlueWave already has funding from the US Department of Energy.   

BlueWave says the facilities with innovative dual-use of solar development attributes will benefit all parties impacted by the projects, including landowners, farmers and surrounding community members.  

"The collaborative support from our parent company Axium Infrastructure has enabled us to bring long-term, institutional capital to a portfolio of projects that advance the sustainable generation of renewable energy in harmony with the continuing agricultural operations," said BlueWave CEO and Co-Founder Trevor Hardy.  

Axium acquired Boston-headquartered solar and storage developer BlueWave in May 2022 (see North America PV News Snippets).  

In its 2022 reports, the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) endorsed agrivoltaics while recommending a broad consensus between all solar and agriculture stakeholders to build more community support for such projects (see NREL Reports Highlight Potential For Agrivoltaics In US).  

Agrivoltaics, along with other advanced solar module applications such as BIPV, floating solar among others, will be discussed at length during  TaiyangNews Virtual Conference on Advanced Module Applications  on September 26, 2023. Registrations to the event are free and can be done here.