Yes We Can Have Our AI Cake And Eat Too: Agrivoltaics Can Cover Energy For Data Centers

InnovationSustainabilityYes We Can Have Our AI Cake And Eat Too: Agrivoltaics Can Cover Energy For Data CentersByJoshua Pearce,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Joshua Pearce is a professor at Western University covering economics and sustainabilityFollow AuthorApr 21, 2026, 07:13am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Farmer planting crops next to a tracking agrivoltaics.AFP via Getty ImagesArtificial intelligence (AI) use is everywhere. You can’t even do a simple search on the Internet anymore without the AI servers spinning up and giving you a summary you don’t want. AI reads our emails. AI helps us decide what to eat for breakfast. AI use has become so prevalent that AI-based energy use is straining the electrical system and impacting large-scale electrical grid planning. Some have even said that energy will be the limiting factor in AI growth. Calls for sustainable AI, where we would use sustainable renewable energy to power AI, come at a time when solar photovoltaic technology provides the lowest cost electricity in history. Not surprisingly, solar energy has been experiencing incredible growth. Both of these growth sectors, AI and solar now create land use conflict with farming. This may seem like an impossible problem to solve. Fortunately, the concept of agrivoltaics, where we purposely put solar on farmland to help the crops, provides a solution to this land use conflict for solar and AI alike. Detroit, Michigan, Residents picket DTE Energy, opposing the electric utility's plan to provide power for a proposed $7 billion data center in rural Michigan. They fear that it could raise residential electricity rates and endanger the water supply. (Photo by: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesData Centers for AI need Power and Solar Agrivoltaics Can Supply It A new stu...