In our spotlight on Business Report.

What do cows and solar farms have in common?

Well, it turns out quite a bit.

They're part of a renewable energy project, the first of its kind in New Jersey called Agro Overtakes.

Using land for both agriculture and solar production.

Rutgers University today showed off their first attempt at it, which is expected to produce clean energy while making farms more sustainable.

A potential win win.

Raven Santana reports.

I want people to drive by a farm, see that solar field and go.

I get my food there and I get my energy there.

Thousands of people driving along Route one in New Brunswick will be enjoying a unique meal.

Cows grazing alongside solar panels.

It's part of a more than $7.4 million state of the art agrifood tax program, which focuses on combining agriculture and solar power generation simultaneously on the same land.

2 to 3.

And today, Rutgers researchers, state officials and members of the solar industry held a ribbon cutting to show off the new project at Rutgers Coke campus.

Animal Farm in New Brunswick.

David Baca is a part of the team that spearheaded the Rutgers Agrifood Takes program and says the project allows farmers to maximize what they can do on their land.

What's unique about this is that typically when solar is built on the farm, it really limits what can be done.

Oftentimes the only thing is that the grass is being mowed under the panels.

These are redesigned in a way to make it a farmer first, so they're spaced out so farm equipment can get through their, you know, at a height that allows equipment to pass underneath.

And so the farmer can continue to farm the same ground while making clean energy with the solar panels at the same time.

With cattle being the number one agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide each year.

Specter says the project shows off the multiple benefits of renewable energy for farms.

We think that this is a system that offers a really good opportunity for farm viability.

And it's because the developer of the solar project will pay a lease to the farmer.

And so they'll they'll have a secondary income for that ground.

They'll have the lease for the property, for the solar plus they'll continue to have the income from the crops they grow.

We still need a lot more information about, you know, what are the costs in doing our own takes, what are the benefits, what are the best practices and where can you get more information?

And that's where this project comes in.

The more than 300 solar panels behind me here will in turn enable researchers to test whether farmers can generate sustainable and profitable production without substantially reducing space for growing crops.

Their vertical bifacial panels.

When we were deciding on what ones to use, I like those these ones that are here because you can operate equipment around them.

Easy.

There's not a large footprint to hinder what's going on.

And another aspect is the shadow that they create moves much faster than the traditional ones that you see that are tilted.

Clint Burger is the research farm manager for the Farm Animal Program.

Berger says they also put trackers on the cows collars to see if they are favoring or avoiding panels.

We thought we could do cows one.

One aspect of it is from the farm standpoint, I have lots of sheep pasture, but not a lot of cow pasture.

You need more pasture for cows because obviously there are a lot larger.

So we could put cows here and have them graze around the solar panels.

So we're we're contributing to sustainability and having the cattle increases that sustainability.

Spec says they are now monitoring the project to incorporate different livestock and expand to other agricultural landscapes.

For NJ Spotlight News.

I'm Raven Santana.