Tag Archive for: farming

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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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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