Itanna and Yosafe Murphy are working to use agrivoltaics–co-locating solar PV energy production with agricultural activities on their 160-acre farm–to provide healthy, fresh and tasty food to their community. STEM education and energy resilience via a microgrid are also part of the plan.
In addition to agrivoltaics, the project, located in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, will integrate vertical farming and hydroponics. Oregon State University, Ecotrust, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and others have joined the effort as technical partners.
Despite the loss of funding sources from the federal government under the Trump administration, the pair are moving forward with a “blank canvas and a really big idea,” hoping to create a model for other farmers.
Listen to my podcast interview with them: These Farmers Want to Use Agrivoltaics to Supply Healthy Food to Their Community
Itanna and Yosafe want to share their projects locally and nationally.
“Once we have the agrivoltaics and the vertical farming, the aquaponics systems, and we’ll plug into the local community as a resiliency hub and also as a STEM hub for agriculture, for green energy, for really how to build a business,” said Yosafe Murphy. “If we can build a scalable model of these things, then these projects can be done on larger scales in other communities or on smaller scales. People can come tour our farm and kind of see how these systems work and then help implement them in their community.”
Itanna said that the idea is based on the couple’s experiences working in the medical field–and it’s a project about healing.
“We come from medical backgrounds and we think of the body and the systems and what needs to heal and think of it in systemic way. And then we take that same type of thinking and apply it to the land,” she said. “We need to have water retention. We need to have less chemicals, use less water, and what do we have to do to heal the land as well.”
Visit the Murphy family’s project at ShebaFarm.com