Extending the land-smart solar strategy from urban rooftops to rural agricultural landscapes
By Dr. Abiola Bashorun
Nigeria’s growing demand for electricity is creating a new challenge: how can the country expand renewable energy without putting additional pressure on land needed for housing, industry, infrastructure and, most importantly, food production?
In my previous publication, I made the case for rooftop solar as a practical land-conservation strategy for Nigeria’s urban and industrial areas. Where buildings already occupy valuable land, their rooftops should be considered first as platforms for solar electricity generation.
Across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Ibadan, Aba, Onitsha, Enugu, Akure and other rapidly expanding cities, the rooftops of markets, factories, warehouses, schools, hospitals, government buildings, commercial centres and residential developments represent a significant but underutilised opportunity.
Using suitable rooftops for solar generation can help Nigeria increase renewable electricity production without unnecessarily converting additional urban land into ground-mounted solar installations.
But the land-smart solar conversation should not end at the city boundary.
As we move into rural and agricultural areas, the same principle of efficient land use should guide renewable-energy development. However, the technology may need to change.
This is where vertical agrivoltaics deserves serious attention.
From Rooftops in Cities to Dual-Use Farmland
Agrivoltaics broadly refers to combining agricultural production and solar-energy generation on the same land.
Vertical agrivoltaics is one approach. Instead of covering large areas of farmland with conventional low-mounted solar arrays, solar panels—often bifacial panels capable of receiving sunlight from both sides—are installed vertically in spaced rows, allowing agricultural activities to continue between them.
This does not mean every Nigerian farm should be filled with solar panels. Agrivoltaics should not be presented as a universal replacement for conventional solar development.
Rather, Nigeria should research, test and adapt the technology in locations where productive agricultural land must be protected while rural communities also need reliable electricity.
The question should therefore not only be:
Where can we build more solar farms?
It should also be:
How can we generate more renewable electricity while preserving the economic function of the land?
Protecting Land That Produces Food
Nigeria faces competing demands for land.
We need more agricultural production to strengthen food security. We need housing for a growing population. We need industries, roads, logistics facilities, public infrastructure and environmental restoration.
At the same time, we need substantially more electricity.
Land is not an unlimited resource, and energy planning must recognise this reality.
Where productive farmland can continue supporting agriculture while also contributing to electricity generation, such dual-use opportunities deserve careful investigation.
Vertical agrivoltaics could provide one such opportunity.
Depending on how a project is designed, the spacing between vertical solar-panel rows may allow crops, agricultural workers, irrigation systems and machinery to continue operating.
The land can therefore retain its agricultural function while producing renewable electricity.
That is the potential advantage.
Rural Nigeria Needs Electricity Where Agriculture Happens
The case for agrivoltaics becomes stronger when the electricity generated is connected directly to agricultural production and rural livelihoods.
Nigeria’s agricultural challenge is not simply about producing crops. It is also about what happens after harvest.
Farmers need electricity for irrigation and water pumping, cold storage, refrigeration, grain drying, milling, processing, packaging, storage, livestock operations, aquaculture, community water systems and small rural businesses.
Where reliable electricity is unavailable, farmers can lose produce before it reaches the market or be forced to sell raw commodities without adding value.
This is why vertical agrivoltaics should not be viewed simply as another solar technology.
Its greater potential may lie in connecting renewable energy to agricultural productivity, food security and rural economic development.
A well-designed system could support a value chain such as:
Farm production → Solar electricity → Irrigation → Cold storage → Processing → Packaging → Market
That is a much broader development proposition than electricity generation alone.
Rooftop Solar and Agrivoltaics Should Complement Each Other
Nigeria should not treat rooftop solar and agrivoltaics as competing technologies.
They address different land-use environments.
In urban and industrial areas, suitable rooftops may provide the most sensible opportunity for solar generation.
In rural agricultural areas, where conventional solar development could compete directly with food production, agrivoltaics may offer a dual-use option worth testing.
The national principle could therefore be simple:
Urban Nigeria: Prioritise suitable rooftops.
Rural Nigeria: Protect productive farmland and investigate dual-use agrivoltaics where appropriate.
Together, these approaches could form a coherent land-smart solar strategy.
Markets, warehouses, schools, hospitals, factories and public buildings can increasingly generate electricity from their roofs, while agricultural clusters can explore renewable-energy systems that complement rather than unnecessarily displace farming.
The objective should not be to install solar everywhere simply because land is available.
The objective should be to place solar infrastructure where it creates the greatest combined economic, environmental and social value.
Nigeria Must Build Its Own Evidence
Vertical agrivoltaics is promising, but Nigeria should avoid importing foreign designs and assuming they will automatically perform well under Nigerian conditions.
A system developed for Europe cannot simply be transferred to Kano, Benue, Ondo, Ogun, Abia, Plateau or Rivers State without proper testing.
Nigeria has diverse ecological zones, rainfall patterns, temperatures, soils, crops and farming systems.
Panel spacing, orientation, height, wind resistance, crop sunlight requirements, irrigation, soil moisture, machinery access, maintenance and project economics must all be considered.
Some crops may perform well under partial shading. Others may not.
Some regions may offer favourable conditions for agrivoltaics, while others may be better suited to rooftop solar, conventional ground-mounted solar on non-agricultural land or other renewable-energy technologies.
That is why Nigeria needs research-backed pilot projects.
A Nigeria Vertical Agrivoltaics Demonstration Programme
I recommend establishing a Nigeria Vertical Agrivoltaics Demonstration Programme across selected agro-ecological zones.
Pilot farms could compare conventional agriculture with different agrivoltaic configurations over multiple growing seasons.
Researchers should examine:
– Crop yields
– Solar-energy output
– Soil temperature
– Soil moisture
– Irrigation requirements
– Water use
– Labour requirements
– Machinery access
– Maintenance costs
– Capital and operating costs
– Overall project economics
Different crops, panel orientations and panel spacings should be tested.
The purpose should not be to prove beforehand that agrivoltaics works everywhere.
The purpose should be to determine where it works, for which crops, at what scale and under what economic conditions.
That evidence can then guide farmers, investors, policymakers, researchers and financial institutions.
Connecting Solar to Climate-Smart Agronomy
Agrivoltaics also fits naturally within a broader climate-smart agronomy strategy.
Nigerian farmers are increasingly exposed to extreme heat, irregular rainfall, flooding, drought and changing growing conditions.
In some environments, appropriately designed solar structures may influence field microclimates and reduce direct solar exposure for certain crops. However, such benefits must be measured scientifically rather than assumed.
This is the essence of climate-smart agronomy: combining agricultural science, renewable energy, water management and modern farming practices to improve productivity and resilience.
Nigerian universities, agricultural research institutes, engineering faculties, renewable-energy companies, farmer organisations and government agencies all have important roles to play.
Renewable Energy and the Circular Economy
There is also an opportunity to connect renewable-energy systems to Nigeria’s emerging circular economy.
Rooftop solar in cities and renewable generation around rural agricultural clusters could provide electricity for appropriately designed recycling facilities, organic-waste processing, compost production, water-treatment systems, cold storage and small agro-processing businesses.
Agricultural and market waste can be converted into compost and other useful products. Plastics can be separated and recycled. Food waste can be better managed.
Renewable energy can therefore become part of a wider system linking agriculture, waste management, land restoration and local economic development.
A Smarter Use of Land
Nigeria should not approach renewable energy and food production as though one must always displace the other.
But neither should we assume that every solar technology is suitable for every location.
Good policy begins with matching technology to location.
Where suitable roofs are available, we should use them.
Where agricultural land is highly productive, we should protect its farming function.
Where dual-use technologies can allow agriculture and electricity generation to coexist successfully, we should test them scientifically.
Where evidence does not support agrivoltaics, Nigeria should pursue other options.
That is responsible energy planning.
Extending the Rooftop Solar Conversation
The earlier rooftop solar argument was based on a simple question:
Why consume additional urban land for electricity generation when large roof surfaces already exist?
Vertical agrivoltaics extends that question into rural Nigeria:
Why automatically remove productive farmland from agriculture for solar development when, in suitable locations, we may be able to design systems that support both farming and electricity generation?
The answers will not be identical everywhere.
But the principle should remain constant:
Use land intelligently. Protect productive land. Generate energy where it can create the greatest additional economic value.
For Nigeria, rooftop solar and vertical agrivoltaics can complement each other as part of a broader land-smart, climate-smart and economically productive renewable-energy strategy.
The future should not be about choosing between food and power when responsible planning can create opportunities for both.
Rooftops for Power.
Farmland for Food—and, where scientifically proven suitable, Power too.
That is the next logical step in building a smarter renewable-energy strategy for Nigeria.
#BeeRenewed
Dr. Abiola Bashorun is Coordinator, Climate-Smart Agronomy Programme, Nigeria and USA.