What farmers and rural project owners should know about PON 6206 funding, eligibility, and project requirements
New York farmers face a difficult combination of rising energy costs, limited capital, grid reliability concerns, and pressure to preserve productive farmland. NYSERDA’s new Sun and Soil Program is intended to address these challenges by supporting projects that integrate solar energy with active agricultural operations.
Through Program Opportunity Notice (PON) 6206, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has made up to $10 million available for planning, developing, and implementing innovative agrivoltaic and on-farm solar energy projects.
The program presents a significant opportunity for eligible New York farms and agricultural communities to investigate solar generation, battery storage, energy resilience, and new sources of farm revenue—without abandoning the productive use of agricultural land.
What Is Agrivoltaics?
Agrivoltaics is the coordinated use of land for both agricultural production and solar energy generation. Unlike conventional ground-mounted solar development, a properly planned agrivoltaic project incorporates the needs of the farm into the design of the solar installation.
Depending on the property and agricultural operation, this may include:
• Crop production between or beneath solar panels
• Hay, forage, or silage production within a solar array
• Livestock grazing integrated with solar infrastructure
• Elevated or specially spaced solar racking that accommodates farm equipment
• Solar and battery storage designed to support on-farm electrical loads
• Retrofitting an existing solar facility to introduce meaningful agricultural production
Successful agrivoltaics requires more than placing solar panels on farmland. Equipment clearances, drainage, soil protection, access roads, electrical infrastructure, crop conditions, livestock safety, and the farm’s long-term operating requirements must all be considered during project planning.
How Much Funding Is Available?
NYSERDA has allocated up to $10 million across multiple funding rounds. The program anticipates making several awards under four project categories:
1. Solar and Agriculture Integration – On-the-Ground Projects
2. Addressing Barriers and Challenges and Creating Opportunities
3. Building Capacity and Support for Farmers and Communities
4. Increasing Access to Opportunities within Solar Energy and Agriculture
For site-specific projects, expected NYSERDA awards generally range from:
• $20,000 to $200,000 for planning, feasibility, and preparation projects
• $75,000 to $350,000 for implementation and scaling projects
Awards under the other program categories are generally expected to range from $50,000 to $200,000 for earlier-stage projects and $75,000 to $350,000 for implementation or scaling projects.
This is a competitive funding opportunity—not an automatic rebate or a fixed-percentage incentive. Cost sharing is encouraged but not required, and eligible in-kind contributions may be recognized. Applicants may also combine Sun and Soil funding with other public or private funding sources, provided that the same project costs are not funded twice.
Additional program information is available through NYSERDA’s Sun and Soil Program announcement.
Application Deadlines
NYSERDA has announced two initial application rounds:
• First round: December 10, 2026, by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
• Second round: April 20, 2027, by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Additional funding rounds may be announced depending on program needs and the availability of funds.
Because competitive proposals require a defined project, qualified team, preliminary technical analysis, realistic budget, and meaningful farmer participation, interested property owners should begin evaluating potential projects well before the submission deadline.
Who Is Eligible?
The program allows proposals from a broad range of organizations and project teams, including:
• Farmers and agricultural businesses
• Agricultural landowners
• Organizations that regularly support farmers
• Solar and battery-storage developers
• Solar asset owners
• Engineering firms
• Researchers and educational institutions
• Municipalities
• Community organizations
• Agricultural and clean-energy industry partnerships
For physical projects, the project must be located at least partially in New York State. Although many different entities may lead an application, a competitive project team must demonstrate the combined technical and agricultural experience necessary to deliver the proposed work.
Projects should have the active support of at least one farmer. Proposals involving agrivoltaics are also strongly encouraged to include an experienced agrivoltaics specialist, agricultural advisor, or other team member capable of integrating farm operations into the project’s design.
What Types of Farms and Rural Operations Could Benefit?
The strongest opportunities will generally involve active farms with meaningful electrical loads, suitable land or agricultural structures, and a clearly defined operational or resilience need.
Potential beneficiaries include:
• Dairy farms with substantial refrigeration, ventilation, pumping, and milking loads
• Livestock operations seeking resilient electrical service and compatible solar land use
• Hay, forage, and silage producers
• Commodity and specialty-crop farms
• Orchards, vineyards, nurseries, and similar agricultural operations where solar configurations can be adapted to production requirements
• Farms considering electrification of equipment or other operating processes
• Farms vulnerable to utility outages or rural grid limitations
• Agricultural properties with existing solar installations that could be retrofitted for productive agricultural use
• Farms evaluating solar generation as a source of operating savings or supplemental revenue
The program is particularly interested in projects that introduce a new agricultural use, configuration, technology, geographic application, or practical solution that other New York farms could replicate.
Common practices such as pollinator habitat, apiaries, or conventional sheep grazing may remain valuable components of solar development. However, by themselves, these practices may not provide the level of innovation required for Sun and Soil implementation funding.
What Types of Projects Can Be Funded?
The program distinguishes between planning projects and implementation projects.
Planning, Feasibility, and Preparation
Planning proposals may support the evaluation of:
• Agrivoltaic systems with or without battery storage
• Solar and battery storage for on-farm power
• Solar installed on barns or other agricultural buildings
• Farm electrification supported by solar generation
• Retrofit of an existing solar project for agricultural production
• Utility interconnection and rate-related considerations
• Preliminary design, permitting, and project preparation
• Agricultural production, operational savings, and energy-generation estimates
Site-specific planning projects must anticipate at least 50 kWDC of solar-generating capacity.
Implementation and Scaling
Implementation proposals may support innovative agrivoltaic projects involving:
• Construction or substantial field testing
• Solar arrays configured around crops, livestock, or agricultural equipment
• Agrivoltaics combined with battery storage
• On-farm powering combined with an agrivoltaic component
• Retrofit or expansion of an existing solar facility
• Data collection and performance evaluation
Implementation projects must anticipate at least 100 kWDC of solar capacity, demonstrate site control, and present a credible plan to become operational within two years of the award.
Key Program Requirements
A successful Sun and Soil proposal must do more than demonstrate that solar panels can fit on a property. The project must establish a meaningful relationship between the energy system and the agricultural operation.
Applicants should be prepared to demonstrate:
• A defined New York farm site or agricultural application
• Meaningful farmer involvement in project decisions
• A clear agricultural, energy, resilience, or operational benefit
• An appropriately qualified project team
• A realistic scope, schedule, and budget
• Identification of major project risks and uncertainties
• A credible approach to solar generation, storage, or interconnection
• Protection of agricultural soils and continued productive land use
• Defined methods for evaluating energy and agricultural performance
• Willingness to share costs, operating data, outcomes, and lessons learned with NYSERDA
• A project with value that can extend beyond a single property and inform future New York projects
Planning projects are generally expected to be completed within one to two years. Implementation projects may extend from two to four years. Projects involving constructed infrastructure must also be prepared to share information and lessons learned for at least three years following construction.
Why an Independent Energy Engineer Matters
A solar developer can be an essential project partner, but the developer’s primary responsibility is typically to develop, finance, sell, construct, or operate a solar project. The farm owner needs a technical representative whose primary responsibility is different: protecting the owner’s operational, financial, and long-term interests.
An independent energy engineer can evaluate the project from the owner’s perspective before the owner commits to a particular developer, technology, system size, or commercial structure.
That independent oversight may include:
• Reviewing the farm’s actual energy use and critical loads
• Establishing realistic solar and battery-storage requirements
• Comparing behind-the-meter, grid-export, and resilience strategies
• Evaluating lifecycle costs, savings, incentives, and project risks
• Reviewing developer assumptions and energy-production projections
• Verifying that the solar layout remains compatible with farm equipment and operations
• Coordinating agricultural, electrical, structural, civil, and utility requirements
• Reviewing proposals, contracts, drawings, specifications, and change orders
• Monitoring construction quality and compliance with the approved design
• Commissioning the completed system and verifying actual performance
• Managing NYSERDA documentation, reporting, and funding requirements
This does not replace the solar developer. It gives the owner an experienced technical advocate who can coordinate the project team, test assumptions, identify gaps, and help ensure that the final project serves the farm—not simply the solar installation.
How Mayflower Energy Engineering Can Help
Mayflower Energy Engineering provides independent energy consulting, project implementation, commissioning, performance verification, and owner’s engineering services.
With more than 25 years of energy-engineering experience, MEE can assist farmers and rural property owners with:
• Preliminary Sun and Soil eligibility screening
• Farm energy-use and critical-load analysis
• Solar and battery-storage feasibility studies
• Conceptual system sizing and project alternatives
• Energy savings, resilience, and lifecycle cost analysis
• NYSERDA proposal development and funding coordination
• Solar developer and contractor proposal review
• Owner’s representation through design and construction
• System commissioning, monitoring, and performance verification
Our approach begins with the owner’s objectives and operating needs. We then help assemble and coordinate the appropriate agricultural, solar, storage, and project-development specialists.
Property owners can learn more about MEE’s energy engineering services and project implementation services and review our project experience.
Is Your Farm a Potential Sun and Soil Project?
The first step is determining whether the property, energy use, agricultural operation, and project concept align with the program’s requirements.
Farmers, agricultural businesses, rural landowners, municipalities, and organizations considering an agrivoltaic or on-farm solar and storage project are invited to contact Mayflower Energy Engineering for an initial project discussion.
Contact MEE to evaluate your project’s eligibility, technical potential, and next steps before the upcoming NYSERDA application deadlines. Start a conversation with Mayflower Energy Engineering.