Advances and challenges of agrivoltaic in the Americas: a look at its current situation

Currently, countries face the dual challenge of meeting food demands while dealing with climate change. It is in this context that agrivoltaics emerges as a solution to meet the targets of two sustainable development goals apparently in conflict when it comes to land use such as "Zero Hunger" and "Affordable and Clear Energy". However, this technology has evolved the most in Europe and, to a lesser extent, in other parts of the world. The objective of the research is to analyze the current state of agrivoltaics in the Americas, its background, the socio-political situation, the main designs, the land use under the system, the main findings, as well as the challenges and limitations as a transforming tool for sustainable food and energy production in the continent. A systematic quantitative review was conducted, examining the Web of Science, Scopus, Nature, Springer Link, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute and Google Scholar databases. Results show that countries with most advancement in this technology are the United States and Chile, although there are others where interest in the subject is increasing, such as Canada, Mexico, and Colombia. The design configurations used are solar tracking systems and semi-transparent technology. In North America, it is applied for vegetable production, beekeeping and grazing, mainly sheep. However, in South America, its application is more focused on agricultural production, with the exception of Brazil. Despite the favorable social context, the legislative framework is the most significant barrier to the adoption and consolidation of this technology in the continent.