Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Oregon senators hold informational hearing on agrivoltaics as House bill would create statewide task force
Summary
Legislators heard researchers, farmers and livestock specialists about agrivoltaics — using the same land for solar and farming — and were told House Bill 2063 would form an 18‑month task force to study siting, design and protections for agricultural land.
An informational hearing on agrivoltaics drew testimony April 28 to the Senate Energy and Environment Committee as lawmakers considered how to allow solar installations that share land with farming without taking good farmland out of production.
The hearing focused on House Bill 2063, introduced in the House as a committee bill, which would create a Task Force on Agrivoltaics supported by the Department of Land Conservation and Development and a broad set of stakeholders to study land‑use rules, potential benefits and impacts, and recommended guardrails. The bill, sponsors said, calls for the task force to meet over 18 months and report to the Legislature before the 2027 session.
Former state Senator Michael Dembrow, who described the bill’s genesis, told the committee that agrivoltaics is “the simultaneous use of land for both agriculture and solar energy production.” He said the task force would examine existing land‑use regulations, the benefits and limits of agrivoltaics for smaller family farms, impacts to the agricultural…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
