Farm While Selling Electricity… ‘Agrivoltaics Act’ Passes National Assembly Plenary Session

[Korea Agricultural Technology Newspaper = Reporter Baek Cheol-hyeon] A path has opened for people in rural areas to earn solar power generation income while continuing to farm. On May 7, the National Assembly passed the enactment bill for the “Act on the Promotion and Support of Agrivoltaic Power Generation Projects (Agrivoltaics Act)” at a plenary session. The bill was prepared based on three major principles: securing food security, orderly introduction, and internalization of profits. The core of the bill is to ensure that power generation profits remain in rural communities. It improves on problems caused by existing rural solar projects, where outside operators converted farmland, leading to farmland damage and profit leakage.

Eligible participants are limited to farmers who live in the relevant area and are actually cultivating the land, as well as resident-participation cooperatives. To protect tenant farmers, the law guarantees their farming rights by requiring lease contracts to be automatically renewed and by limiting rent increases to within 5%.

There will also be changes in agricultural promotion zones (prime farmland), where solar installation had been strictly restricted due to their high conservation value. In principle, agrivoltaics are allowed only on farmland outside promotion zones, but projects will be permitted even within promotion zones if they are located in “renewable energy districts” designated under the “Rural Spatial Restructuring Act.” This is interpreted as showing the government’s intention to actively foster energy self-sufficient villages (“sunlight income villages”) by easing regulations in planned cluster zones.

To prevent so-called “fake farming,” in which operators sell only electricity without actually farming, the government will introduce a strict follow-up management system. Power generation operators will be obligated to carry out farming and manage facilities, and legal grounds have been 마련ed to impose strong measures such as corrective orders, penalty surcharges, and even cancellation of business rights in case of violations. In return, diligent operators will receive package support including policy financing loans and education and consulting.

The “Agrivoltaics Act” is expected to be promulgated after Cabinet approval within May and to take effect six months after promulgation. Subordinate regulations are expected to specify matters such as procedures and standards for permitting agrivoltaic projects, crops unsuitable for cultivation, levels of various sanctions and penalty surcharges, detailed standards for corrective orders, and designation of renewable energy districts.

However, in the field there are still considerable concerns about reduced yields of crops grown beneath solar facilities. According to a 2024 demonstration study by the Korea National University of Agriculture and Fisheries, the average yield reduction rate by crop when agrivoltaics are installed was found to be 15.7% for rice, 16.4% for soybeans, 17.7% for cabbage, 22.4% for garlic, and 24% for grapes. The average yield reduction rate across all crops was about 20%.

In response, Kim So-hyung, head of the Energy Policy Division at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, “In general, it is true that agricultural output decreases by about 20% compared with conventional farming (when crops are grown under solar facilities), but there are also crops such as green tea and blueberries whose quality actually improves, so some view it as an agricultural auxiliary facility.”

Regarding concerns raised in some quarters about a concentration on specific crops, Kim said, “We will continue to improve issues such as bias toward certain crops and reduced production through demonstration research with related agencies such as the Rural Development Administration in the future.”