Tag Archive for: agrivoltaic

Swedish scientists reviewed wavelength-selective PV tech for agrivoltaics and recommended creating standards for reporting their performance.

Wavelength-selective PV tech for agrivoltaic applications

Researchers at the Mälardalen University in Sweden have provided an extensive review of all wavelength-selective PV systems for applications in agrivoltaics.

“Traditional opaque silicon panels often create excessive shading that limits light availability for most shade-intolerant crops. Yet, plants do not need the full spectrum of sunlight for growth but only the region where they are photosynthetically active. In some cases, a full spectrum may even hinder their development,” the research’s lead author, Silvia Ma Lu, told pv magazine. “This opens the door for wavelength-selective solar photovoltaic (WSPV) technologies. WSPV systems are designed to transmit light at the wavelengths most beneficial for photosynthesis, while reflecting or absorbing less essential wavelengths to generate electricity.”

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Source: PV Magazine

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A survey by the Solar and Storage Industries Institute shows 70% of US farmers support solar projects on their land if farming can continue.

Survey finds 70% of US farmers are open to large-scale solar on farmland

If large-scale solar projects can allow for the continued use of their land for agricultural production, 70% of US farmers are open to the idea of solar developments on their farmland, according to the results of a new survey from the Solar and Storage Industries Institute. The survey, which sought to measure the opinions about solar on farmland from hundreds of farmers and solar developers, plus some utility stakeholders, is the first of its kind in the US, and was used to build a new report laying out some of the barriers to new agrivoltaic projects.

The report is one part of a larger project which is being funded by the US DOE Foundational Agrivoltaic Research for Megawatt Scale (FARMS) program, with the aim of studying existing barriers to agrivoltaics and then developing recommendations to overcome them, as while there are a growing number of small agrivoltaics projects, only about a tenth of large-scale solar projects currently implement agrivoltaics in their design, per NREL.

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Source: Clean Technica

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Austrian startup Anywhere.solar has released a new double-axis tracking system for applications in agrivoltaic projects.

Austrian startup offers double-axis tracking system for agrivoltaics

Austrian startup Anywhere.solar has released a new double-axis tracking system for applications in agrivoltaic projects.

The tracker has an east-west rotation angle of 360 degrees, with an elevation angle of zero to 85 degrees. The module area is 75 m2. Depending on the modules used, PV systems ranging in size from 14 kW to 19 kW can be installed.

The system relies on an aluminum substructure that is anchored in the ground using lightweight construction elements from manufacturer Steelroot. Assembly is possible without heavy construction machinery, according to the manufacturer. At the end of use, the foundations can be completely dismantled.

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Source: PV Magazine

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The Sunzaun vertical racking system will hold bifacial solar modules that produce energy from both sides of the vertically oriented array.

New Jersey farm studies agrivoltaics with vertically mounted solar

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Rutgers University’s 170 kW agrivoltaic project on its farm on the Cook campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey features a vertical solar installation designed by California-based Sunstall.

The farm operates as a production farm, research facility and teaching operation in support of the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station related activities. At the farm, students, faculty and staff care for a variety of animals, including sheep, goats and cattle.

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Source: PV Magazine

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Researchers in Italy have conducted a series of experiments to assess the quality of wheat growing under elevated agrivoltaic systems.

Wheat grows better in agrivoltaic facilities

Researchers in Italy have conducted a series of experiments to assess the quality of wheat growing under elevated agrivoltaic systems. The have found that it has greater nutritional value for livestock.

The CNR Institute for Bioeconomy, the University of Florence, and Italian agrivoltaic specialist REM Tec srl conducted the study on 11.4 hectares of wheat in Borgo Virgilio, in the province of Mantua. The system featured 7,680 Bisol panels and 768 trackers at a height of 4.5 meters, for total PV coverage of 1.3 hectares.

The team used three sections of 12 meters x 12 meters with photovoltaic coverage with a ground coverage ratio (GCR) of 13% and three sections of 144 m2 with a GCR of 41%. They also used three as reference sections with similar characteristics, but without panels and shading structures.

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Source: PV Magazine

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Researchers at Oregon State University tracked sheep grazing at an Agrivoltaic solar farm. It can be the ideal setup for sheep producers.

Solar farms are suitable for raising sheep, according to one Oregon university

Solar farms can be the ideal set up for sheep producers.

Researchers at Oregon State University tracked sheep grazing at an Agrivoltaic solar farm. They measured the animal’s growth, grazing habits, and water consumption with two flocks, one grazing near the solar panels and the other in an open pasture.

Both flocks grew at the same rates.
The reason is that the shade provides less heat stress to available plants.

These types of solar farms are more difficult to tailor to cattle, but there is an increasing interest among Wyoming sheep producers.

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Source: RFD TV

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A new agrivoltaic project aims to enlist bifacial solar panels and saffron in the effort to save small farms with new specialty crops.

Solar panels meet saffron in new agrivoltaic project

The rarefied  world of saffron cultivation is about to encounter a solar makeover. About 90% of the global saffron supply comes from Iran, but the allure of raising a spice crop that retails for $5,000 a pound could widen the territory. That includes the unlikely state of Vermont, where a new agrivoltaic experiment is under way. If all goes according to plan, it could pave the way for for a saffron boom in the US and help save small farms, to boot.

The Agrivoltaic Advantage

Conventional solar arrays are designed with little attention to ground cover. An agrivoltaic array is different. The solar panels are arranged to enable various kinds of farming to take place. Raising the panels higher off the ground is one typical strategy, for example.

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Source: Clean Technica

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The microclimate created underneath the solar panels conserves the water and protects plants from excess sun, wind, hail and soil erosion.

How shading crops with solar panels can improve farming, lower food costs and reduce emissions

If you have lived in a home with a trampoline in the backyard, you may have observed the unreasonably tall grass growing under it. This is because many crops, including these grasses, actually grow better when protected from the sun, to an extent.

And while the grass under your trampoline grows by itself, researchers in the field of solar photovoltaic technology — made up of solar cells that convert sunlight directly into electricity — have been working on shading large crop lands with solar panels — on purpose.

This practice of growing crops in the protected shadows of solar panels is called agrivoltaic farming. And it is happening right here in Canada.

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Source: The Conversation

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As global temperatures rise, the panels can help to conserve dwindling freshwater supplies by reducing evaporation from both plants and soil.

Agrivoltaic solar farms offer “shocking” benefits beyond producing energy

Next-gen solar parks that enable energy and food production as well as water conservation to work in synergy on the same plot can help to solve solar’s growing land-use issue, according to the researchers making them a reality.

“There is this big debate around using land for solar versus using it for agriculture,” said Colorado State University researcher Jennifer Bousselot. “And I just roll my eyes because you don’t have to pick. They can be combined.”

“This will be absolutely vital to the future of the energy industry,” added Richard Randle-Boggis from the University of Sheffield. “Especially somewhere like the UK, where sustainable land use is a critical challenge.”

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Source: dezeen

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The partial shade offered by solar panels creates a microclimate that reduces evaporation and significantly boosts the production of vegetation in arid climates.

Solar panels keeping sheep fed during drought

Two agrivoltaic installations in New South Wales, Australia are being credited with increasing the quantity and quality of fleece in sheep grazing at the facilities during a drought. Research has indicated that the partial shade offered by solar panels creates a microclimate that reduces evaporation and significantly boosts the production of vegetation in arid climates.

While these results are preliminary and anecdotal (and perhaps a tall tale from a fleece salesman down under), they offer potentially exciting field results that could be applied globally.

Graeme Ostini, a wool broker, says he’s been grazing his merino wethers (a variety of sheep) at a solar farm where sheep can graze under the modules. Ostini and other grazers say that over the past few years, these sheep have been ‘cutting an amazing amount of wool’.

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Source: PV Magazine

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