The American-Made Large Animal and Solar System Operations (LASSO) Prize offers up to $8.2 million in cash prizes to multi-stakeholder teams that develop impactful projects to deepen our understanding of the co-location of photovoltaics (PV) and cattle grazing operations (cattle agrivoltaics).
The LASSO Prize will bring together solar developers, farmers, ranchers, and other stakeholders to form teams, build pilot sites, generate data on cattle agrivoltaics best practices, use cases, costs, applicable business models, associated energy and agricultural outcomes, host field days, and more!
Large Animal and Solar System Operations (LASSO) Prize:
Agrivoltaics, the co-location of solar energy and agriculture, is a growing industry that shows promising benefits for both agricultural production and solar energy development.
Cattle agrivoltaics has the potential to accelerate solar deployment while preserving agricultural operations, creating additional revenue pathways for farmers, ranchers and landowners, providing economic benefits for rural communities, and helping to decarbonize the electric grid.
This innovative practice is relatively new in the U.S., and more pilot and demonstration projects are needed to de-risk designs and business models to prove that cattle agrivoltaics can yield economic and agricultural opportunities.
The LASSO Prize, funded by the U.S Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office, will support pilot and demonstration projects designed to gather and share information about costs, business models, and energy and agricultural outcomes associated with cattle agrivoltaics. The prize also aims to support relationship-building between the solar energy and agricultural communities and generate best practices that will help expand the industry.
Follow the LASSO prize by clicking the "Follow" button at the top right of this HeroX page to receive updates and start forming your team today! You can access teaming resources on the Resource tab to help identify other stakeholders who are interested in your project.
Expected submission open date: September 2024
