Abstract
Urban agrivoltaics, the synergistic integration of solar photovoltaics with urban agriculture, offers a transformative solution to food and energy insecurity, which are major barriers to sustainable urban development, especially in low-income urban areas facing intensified heat and water stress due to climate change. With 70% of the global population projected to live in cities by 2050, maximizing underutilized urban spaces is critical. Our study presents the first evaluation of ground-based agrivoltaics in an urban context, demonstrating that, while early-season yields may decline due to light reduction in temperate climates, productivity rebounds during periods of extreme heat, extending harvest windows and enhancing crop resilience. As cities seek climate-adaptive infrastructure, converting just a fraction of vacant land and rooftops to urban agrivoltaics can yield significant co-benefits such as generating renewable energy for thousands of households while supplying fresh produce to help alleviate food deserts.
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Data availability
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to ongoing analyses but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the National Science Foundation to S. Ravi (CAREER Award #1943969) and the InSPIRE project through the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office under award DE-EE00034165 to J. Macknick. The funder played no role in study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, or the writing of this manuscript. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Temple University staff and faculty in the installation and operation of the agrivoltaics test site at the Ambler Field Station. Special thanks go to Mr. Minh Nguyen (Senior Business Manager, Department of Earth and Environmental Science), Mr. Kevin Orangers (Deputy Director, Temple University Ambler), Dr. Brent Sewall (Director, Ambler Field Station), Dr. Mariana Bonfim (Managing Director, Ambler Field Station), and Mr. Joseph Imszennik (Facilities Manager, Temple University Ambler) for their valuable assistance. The authors thank Mr. Todd Baylson and Mr. Micah Gold-Markel (Solar States) for their essential contributions in designing and developing the solar infrastructure used in this study. We also thank Anrui Xu (Radnor High School) and Veronica Mafla Hernandez (undergraduate student, Temple University) for their contributions to data collection and Dr. Thomas Mozdzer (Biology Professor, Bryn Mawr College) for loaning his LI-600 instruments.
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Conceptualization: C.M., S.R., and J.S.C. Data curation: C.M. Methodology: C.M., S.R., P.P., J.M. N.C.D., and J.S.C. Formal analysis: C.M. Writing—original draft: C.M. Writing—review and editing: C.M., S.R., J.S.C., J.M., and N.C.D. Supervision: S.R. Project administration: S.R. Funding acquisition: S.R. and J.M.
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Merheb, C., Caplan, J.S., Phuyal, P. et al. Urban agrivoltaics enhance crop resilience and food-energy synergies in a changing climate. npj Urban Sustain (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-026-00381-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-026-00381-6
