Tag Archive for: agrivoltaics

With solar farms, the US agriculture industry once again demonstrates its ability to embrace new technologies and practices.

Army of butterflies to win solar farm wars, despite opposition

The rising tide of opposition to large-scale solar farms has been impacting the US solar industry, but over the long run, PV stakeholders have the butterflies on their side. Solar developers are eager to pitch their projects as pollinator habitats that replace cultivated crops and neglected land with native plants, benefiting the property owner and nearby farms. The pollinator angle helps to undercut complaints that solar arrays are an inappropriate use of farmland, and it supports the case for farmers to adopt new technologies that benefit their industry.

Minnesota has become the epicenter of the solar-plus-pollinator trend, with local electric cooperative Connexus Energy leading the way. That’s no accident. A 2016 state law set up Minnesota’s Habitat Friendly Solar program, which incentivizes property owners and solar developers to claim benefits for gamebirds as well as songbirds and pollinating insects.

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Source: Clean Technica

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Growing the crop under a canopy of solar panels has given the fruit, citron of Calabria a new lease of life in southern Italy.

These Italian farmers are saving an ancient fruit with solar power

The citron of Calabria in southern Italy had almost died out from extreme weather and lack of economic value. But growing the crop under a canopy of solar panels has given the fruit a new lease of life – with lessons for many climate-stressed crops.

On a warm late winter morning, Antonio Lancellotta, a 35-year-old farmer, shows me around one of his family’s unorthodox 1.8-acre (7,280 square metre) greenhouse in Scalea, southern Italy. Rows of lush citron trees (Citrus medica), heavy with white flowers fill the space. Yet, above the trees, at about 12.5ft (3.8m) above the ground, alternating lines of transparent plastic sheets and photovoltaic panels roofed the field. The Lancellotta family was one of the first in Italy to experiment with “agrivoltaics”, where crops are grown underneath solar panels.

“Look at the quality of this citron,” Lancellotta says, holding a large heart-shaped yellow fruit. “Perfect.”

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Source: BBC

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New study finds that an optimal arrangement of solar panels on farms can cool the panels down by 10 degrees—crucial for their efficiency.

Solar panels handle heat better when they’re combined with crops

It’s an ironic fact that sun-harvesting solar panels function better when they’re not too hot. But luckily researchers have now discovered precisely how to cool them down. Building solar panels at a specific height above crops can reduce surface temperatures by up to 10 °C, compared to traditional panels constructed over bare ground, they’ve found.

The results, published in the journal Applied Energy, are the latest contribution to a growing body of research on agrivoltaics: a farming method that aims to maximize land use by pairing solar panels with cropland, thus minimizing competition between energy production and food. We already know that agrivoltaics can increase land-use efficiency, produce plenty of electricity on minimal land, and may also improve crop yields by shielding plants from heat and wind.

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Source: Anthropocene

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Sunzaun's system is designed to accommodate framed & unframed bifacial vertical solar panels, and that wires are managed in a safe way.

These new vertical solar systems are specially designed for farms

Ground-mount solar installer Sunstall has launched Sunzaun, a company that makes vertical solar systems for farms and agricultural settings.

Sunzaun has designed its vertical solar systems for the growing field (no pun intended) of agrivoltaics – when agriculture and solar coexist on the same land. Crops are grown, or smaller animals such as sheep graze, around or underneath solar panels. Benefits include efficient land use, clean energy, and potential water savings due to shade created by the solar panels.

The Novato, California, company says its vertical solar systems can also be used as city infrastructure – that is, along highways, next to railroads, and as residential or public fences.

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Source: electrek

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Solar and agriculture are beginning to converge as farmers learn renewable energy can make farming more efficient.

Why solar & farming is a match made in heaven

A plot of land can do a number of things. It can grow trees and crops. It can support a home, an office tower, or a factory. It can be a parking lot. But it can’t do all those things at the same time. Choices have to be made. It’s no use to erect the world’s tallest apartment building if there is not enough food for the people who will live there. It is no use to put solar panels everywhere if they don’t leave space available for crops or dwellings.

Multi-tasking is a word that has crept into our vocabularies lately. Computers can have a bunch of tabs open at the same time and still be able to do online chats. As the world becomes more densely populated, land will need to multi-task as well. Here are some examples of how that can work.

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Source: Clean Technica

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‘Agrivoltaics’ projects seek to grow clean energy and food that would boost solar installations and give farmers more revenue.

US seeks perfect ‘Reese’s Cup’ mix of farming and solar panels

Flat, sunny acres of land are prime real estate for solar energy developers who hold a key role in helping the US meet its climate goals.

But developers are often eyeing fields of wheat, corn, and hay; ranches roamed by cattle and sheep; and plots bursting with berries and lettuce. If built there, solar panels can level farms that feed the country. Yet federal energy officials and university researchers believe there’s no conflict.

The Energy Department is scaling up the emerging field of “agrivoltaics,” which seeks innovations in both solar technology and farming techniques that can produce clean energy and food at the same time, on the same plot of land.

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Source: Bloomberg Law

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A decommissioned nuclear power plant from the 1980s is repurposed for agrivoltaics and prairie restoration.

Agrivoltaics goes nuclear on California prairie

Interest in the emerging field of agrivoltaics has been exploding as researchers and farmers keep adding on to the list of  ways to combine solar panels with agricultural activity. In the latest twist, an agrivoltaic project in California is aimed at restoring native prairie at the site of a decommissioned nuclear power plant.

Agrivoltaics refers to the conduct of agricultural activity within a solar array. A relatively new field, agrivoltaics is a departure from the common practice of not really attempting to grow anything at all under a ground-mounted solar panel, except perhaps for some grass that needs to be mowed down at regular intervals.

Initial versions of agrivoltaics were confined mainly to cultivating pollinator habitats and grazing lands in and around the arrays. More recently, researchers and farmers have been exploring more sophisticated applications that involve growing consumables and preserving whole industries.

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Source: Clean Technica

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DOE announced $8 million for six solar energy research projects across six states and the District of Columbia that supports agrivoltaics.

DOE announces $8M to integrate solar energy production with farming

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $8 million for six solar energy research projects across six states and the District of Columbia that will provide new economic opportunities for farmers, rural communities, and the solar industry. The funding supports agrivoltaics—the co-location of agricultural production and solar energy generation on the same land—and aims to reduce barriers to utility-and community-scale solar energy deployment while maximizing benefits for farmers and local communities. By increasing access to solar energy, the new projects reflect the Biden-Harris Administration’s continued commitment to ensuring that every community unlocks the public health and cost-saving benefits of a clean energy future and support President Biden’s goals to decarbonize the electricity sector by 2035 and achieve a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

“DOE’s research into agrivoltaics provides an incredible opportunity to pair solar energy generation with safe and robust crop production—ensuring rural communities reap the full economic benefits of a clean energy future,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “With these exciting projects, we’re supporting sustainable agriculture and investing in the technologies that enable us to make our climate goals a reality—a win-win for our planet and hardworking farmers coast to coast.”

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Source: Energy Gov

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UC Davis' Scientists are investigating how to better harvest the sun to make agrivoltaic systems more efficient in arid agricultural regions.

Harvesting light to grow food and clean energy together

People are increasingly trying to grow both food and clean energy on the same land to help meet the challenges of climate change, drought and a growing global population that just topped 8 billion. This effort includes agrivoltaics, in which crops are grown under the shade of solar panels, ideally with less water.

Now scientists from the University of California, Davis, are investigating how to better harvest the sun — and its optimal light spectrum — to make agrivoltaic systems more efficient in arid agricultural regions like California.

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Source: UC Davis

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Emerging research suggests growing tomato plants below and between solar panels could help the country’s billion-dollar-plus tomato industry, especially in places where it faces increasing stress from heat and drought.

Agrovoltaics could help California crops, if the economics pan out

Drought and extreme heat in California’s Central Valley in recent years has meant shortages of tomatoes, particularly “processing tomatoes” used for sauce and ketchup. And such conditions are only expected to get worse with climate change.

Researchers note that the relatively nascent field of agrovoltaics — growing crops below and between solar panels — could offer help to the country’s billion-dollar-plus tomato industry.

Shade provided by solar panels can help conserve water, create humidity, and lower temperatures that can become too much even for heat-loving tomatoes.

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Source: Energy News Network

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