Largest Farm to Grow Crops Under Solar Panels Proves To Be A Bumper Crop For Agrivoltaic Land Use::undefined
Start putting solar canopies over all these goddamn mostly empty parking lots we have everywhere. Completely wasted space otherwise and it’d provide some cover from the rain for people coming and going from their cars.
Plus you’d lower the temperature of the vehicles, reducing air conditioning and decreasing fuel/battery use, which would further decrease emissions
No one ever brings this up, but the heat island effect might be diminished? Not sure how the math works out there.
Possibly? But either way, cooling the panels will increase their service life with a slight net increase in output as well. It should reduce the heating of parking lots by as much of the power it makes.
Or abandon the min parking reqs so developers can build something else there. But also solar panels where we actually need parking space
Most of those minimum parking requirements are based on bullshit anyways.
Yeah, build something other than a parking lot, and put a solar panel on top of that! 🧠
This is one that seriously gets me as to why we don’t do this more, it would make so much sense. Obvious benefits are power generation, but also when you consider, it would significantly reduce how scorching hot large carparks get in the sun, depending on the style of the solar canopy being built it could also massively reduce the amount of water flow onto the ground reducing some wear on the tarmac in addition to some hazards.
Also for places like the UK where we typically don’t have huge amounts/extended periods of snow, as long as the canopy is sufficiently designed for the additional weight, you could ameliorate the need to salt the car parks, once again increasing the life of the tarmac.
It would also keep people’s cars much cooler, in the sun, and make things generally a lot cooler below the canopy.
“Its too hard to maintain.”
“What if someone hits the pole holding up the panels?”
“It costs more than clear cutting a forest to put the panels in.” (True story)
Lots of bullshit reason.
That’s where a properly functioning government would be able to step in. Parking lot taxes are going up x%, but if you install solar panels, you get an x% tax break.
That and add a steep tax for single purpose solar fields.
It’s not that it’s too hard to maintain, but that in order to make sense it would have to be cheaper than building and maintaining the solar panels on some larger and less valuable patch of land 30 minutes out of town.
There are very few land uses more worthless than a surface parking lot.
I work in municipal development.
If it costs a quarter-penny more to build a better product, a developer will do anything they can to avoid it.
I’ve had them flip out and demand to the City Manager that I be fired because they had to paint parking stripes. More than once.
Agro-solar is a win win. Solar is the fastest and the most economic energy to deploy.
Agrivoltaics isn’t the golden goose that you read here and there. There are limited sets of applications, and it requires the application of semi permanent structures which heavily impact on the logistics of field management and operations. Also, the efficiency of such plants isn’t as high as that of a pure solar farm, whilst potentially reducing the yields. Its a cool tech but not one that can save us.
Yields with solar are crop dependent. Some crops like berries yield more with solar panel cover.
Right, i didn’t explain myself well
The combination has significantly higher yield than the respective reductions though. A farmer applying it will make less money on farming, but much more money in total. But given teh increase in temperatures and droughts due to climate change, the combination can secure yields, as it keeps plants from getting sunburnt and drying out as fast.
Depends. Climate, culture, even the size of the farms. Again, its not an investment that automatically pays off.
Investing in solar energy almost always pays off in the short term
I mean that it’s not always a viable investiment, based on the size and the type of farm and even the agricultural practices adopted. *horticultural products work fairly well with agrovoltaic farms *pastures also work rather well with such kind of solar panels *other coltures are not necessarily suited *precision agriculture and precision irrigation system are the future, in this case agrivoltaics may work well however, it is not garanteed that this transition is easy for various farms. Agribusiness corporation have the means to do that, for example.
Agrivoltaics is the combined use of solar panels and agriculture under the panels that together use less energy and produce more crops. It can also provide shade for livestock.
I guess it would depend on the crops, but wouldn’t it somewhat limit the use of farming equipment. I assume you’re not going to fit a tractor in the field with those panels and supports.
It depends on the type of supporting structure for the panels. In Germany a company built it tall enough to use their normal farm equipment: Image
I’ve seen pictures of massive tractors pulling several ploughs side by side in the US, that would most likely not work with this, but there are plenty of solutions for anything on a slightly smaller scale.
It’s usually permanent pasture grazing that’s mixed with solar panels. Take low value land that doesn’t support the use of large equipment, add value with panels and get free shade for livestock.
Another technique is covering canals with solar panels, with both advantages in terms of lower evaporation and higher efficiency due to the cooling effect of water on panels.
There’s lots of startups making smaller agile AI powered electric robotics for agriculture. Would pair well with a farm like this.
They use robotic equipment mixed with occasional human support. It’s possible but it’s a high tech farm, quite expensive and thus not open to every farmer. Tractors, even small ones, are quite huge for that kind of farming practice.
As this is not mentioned, is it possible to extend the system by collecting rainwater falling on solar panels ?
The rainwater would fall off the slanted panels and fall onto the plants.
This is so cool!
Possibly a stupid question, but is there anything toxic in the solar panels or their infrastructure that could contaminate the plants or soil below? Particularly if the panels were damaged in, say, extreme weather, but also as a result of general wear and tear. I’m thinking heavy metal dust, carcinogenic liquid components, that sort of thing. As per the article this seems like it could be a good land use pairing, but not if it renders the soil unfit for agriculture due to a buildup of contamination.
most electronics have lead, i think thatd be the main thing .
I’ve heard of the panels burning down making fhe field unsafe for use in the future
That’s not a thing.
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It works really well, so how is it a dodge? Is watering crops also a dodge?
The plants provide a cooling effect, which makes solar more efficient. At the same time, plants are protected from hail and heavy rains. Water loss is reduced, as well. The shade isn’t necessarily a downside, as some plants prefer it.
Transparent panels are a thing now too, if you can optimise your panels for the wavelengths your plants don’t need that’s even better.
You mean the parking we should get rid of because cars ruin cities? Nah.
