One of the biggest criticisms of utility-scale solar is that it competes with agriculture for land. As countries race to add more renewable energy, that debate has become increasingly relevant in the Philippines, where arable land is both limited and economically important. Agrivoltaics offers a different approach. Instead of converting farmland into solar farms, the concept allows both to coexist. Solar panels generate electricity while crops continue to grow underneath or between the arrays, allowing a single piece of land to produce both food and clean energy. The Philippines is beginning to put that concept into practice. The country’s largest commercial example is a Batangas project developed by Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation. The nearly 200-megawatt facility combines utility-scale solar generation with crop production and battery energy storage, making it one of the first projects in Southeast Asia to move agrivoltaics beyond the pilot stage and into commercial operation. Long-term testing Years before breaking ground in Batangas, Citicore began testing whether farming could continue inside operating solar facilities. At its solar sites in Tarlac, the company launched small “agro-solar” trials to answer a practical question: can farmers continue producing crops without affecting electricity generation? The trials focused on shade-tolerant, high-value crops, including turmeric, grown beneath photovoltaic panels. Researchers observed not only crop performance but also changes in soil conditions, moisture retention, and ground temperature created by the partial shade from the panels. The objective was to determine whether crop yields could remain commercially viable, whether the modified microclimate could benefit plant growth, and whether farming activities could coexist with routine operation and maintenance of a solar power plant. Success rate high The results were encouraging enough to influence later developments. Lessons from the Tarlac trials helped shape panel spacing, mounting height and crop selection for larger agrivoltaic projects, including the Batangas facility. That progression reflects a shift taking place with farmers across the region. While agrivoltaics has attracted growing attention worldwide, commercial projects in Southeast Asia remain relatively rare. Most initiatives are still limited to research farms or demonstration sites. The Philippines is among the first countries in the region to deploy the concept at utility scale, providing valuable operational data that other developers can study. The timing is significant. The Philippines has set ambitious renewable energy targets, but securing land for large solar developments has become increasingly difficult. Agrivoltaics offers a way to reduce conflicts over land use while allowing rural communities to continue farming. More questions There are still questions to answer. Long-term crop productivity, water requirements, maintenance costs, and project economics will ultimately determine how widely the model can be adopted. Different crops will respond differently to shading, and designs will need to be tailored to local conditions. Even so, agrivoltaics is no longer just a research concept in the Philippines. It is now operating at commercial scale, offering an early glimpse of how future solar projects could generate electricity without taking farmland out of production. That may prove to be one of the most important innovations in the country’s renewable energy transition.
