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| Thu, 9th Apr 2020 14:39:00 |
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After COVID-19, Here Comes More & Better Farming With Solar Panels |
Solar panels are sprouting on farmland like mushrooms after the rain, but there's no such thing as a free lunch. If too many solar panels replace too much cropland, there goes the food supply. However, farmers are beginning to learn how to do their farming within solar arrays, and in a new green twofer, solar arrays could actually help push the regenerative agriculture movement into the mainstream.
Solar Panels + Farming, Good
The first twist in the field of solar + farming was a relatively simple one. Raise the solar panels just a few extra feet off the ground, and you can graze sheep and other animals on the same land. You can also use the land for pollinator habitat. Et voilà, there you have something new called agrivoltaics.
Of course, raised solar panels can involve some extra cost, but that could be counterbalanced by an increase in efficiency. Researchers are beginning to amass evidence that allowing plants to flourish under a raised solar array can improve solar cell efficiency by creating a cooling microclimate.
As for growing human-edible crops, that's a tougher row to hoe. For starters, the solar panel racks would limit the width and height of motorized farm equipment. That's not necessarily a deal breaker, but then another challenge is to identify crops that can grow efficiently in the shade.
Either way, the solar + farming movement has already caught the attention of the US Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is looking for ways to protect farmland against overpopulation by utility-scale solar arrays. The agency's Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency has also published a handy "Farmer's Guide to Going Solar."
Read original full article
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