Tag Archive for: solarfarms

Aerial imagery provides location intelligence and detailed insights, empowering engineers to design solar farms with laser-sharp precision.

Reshaping the solar landscape with aerial imagery

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Gone are the days of relying solely on ground-level surveys. Today, high-resolution photographs and 3D models generated from aerial imagery paint a comprehensive picture of any given piece of land.

Location intelligence—the process of deriving meaningful insights from geospatial data—and aerial imagery are becoming more prominent in the solar industry. These tools are reshaping the solar power landscape, enabling developers to identify the best areas and layout for solar farms, as well as the optimal tilt of solar panels for increased sun exposure. These changes are not only bringing efficiency upgrades; they are paving the way for timely and relevant solutions to address ongoing climate issues that promise to propel the U.S. toward a more sustainable future.

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Source: PV Magazine

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From retired landfills to decommissioned golf courses, murals on the buildings, solar installations are proliferating in unexpected places.

Pressed for space, solar farms are getting creative

Solar power is expected to dominate global electricity markets in the next few decades, and already accounts for three-quarters of renewable energy capacity, according to the International Energy Agency. This year, BloombergNEF predicts solar builds will climb another 25%, adding more than 500 gigawatts of capacity.

All of that solar needs a lot of space. Powering just one megawatt of capacity requires at least five acres, meaning a 200-megawatt project (roughly 3,000 panels) takes up as much space as 550 American football fields. That calculus is one reason China — the world’s biggest solar market — is hosting many projects in remote desert regions. It’s also why the IEA expects rooftop and residential solar to expand faster than farms this year.

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Source: Bloomberg

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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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PV installations increased 30% on farms in the latest US Census of Agriculture. Some 116,758 farms had solar panels in 2022, compared with 90,142 in 2017.

Solar use on US farms jumps 30% in five years

Solar is in on the American farm, while the uptake for wind power is slowing.

Photovoltaic installations increased 30% on farms in the latest US Census of Agriculture released Tuesday. Some 116,758 farms had solar panels in 2022, compared with 90,142 in 2017. Wind turbine installation, meanwhile, grew by only 2.7% during the same period, to 14,511 farms.

The slight increase for wind follows a 56% jump in the previous census, which covered the five years to 2017.

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Source: Bloomberg

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The Biden administration has updated the roadmap for solar development to 22 million acres of federal lands in the US West.

The US government opens 22 million acres of federal lands to solar

The Biden administration has updated the roadmap for solar development to 22 million acres of federal lands in the US West.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory have determined that 700,000 acres of federal lands will be needed for solar farms over the next 20 years, so BLM recommended 22 million acres to give “maximum flexibility” to help the US reach its net zero by 2035 power sector goal.

The plan is an update of the Bureau of Land Management’s  2012 Western Solar Plan, which originally identified areas for solar development in six states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

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Source: electrek

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The climate and the adjacent land covered by solar panels help insulate the track from typical problems faced by other tracks.

How solar panel farms can help protect racetracks

The story is as old as racing circuits are. Land uses change around a popular circuit, neighbors complain, land values go up, and the circuit disappears. The litany of circuits that have been devoured by encroaching development in Southern California alone is disturbing to those who have followed motorsport for decades.

But there is a ray of hope in some areas.

Generating solar power requires lots of land. And solar farms are good neighbors to racetracks. They provide a solid buffer zone, sometimes acres, between the circuit and any other land use. They are not disturbed by noise or traffic. They don’t require a lot of people on site. And once they are established, they are not the sort of uses that are easily displaced by residential, commercial, or other industrial uses.

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Source: Roadracing World

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ISES explains how much solar PV energy could be harvested from freed-up agricultural land in densely-populated countries with declining populations.

Declining populations free up agricultural land for large amounts of solar in densely populated countries

The global population is expected to increase from 8 billion people today to 9.7 billion by mid-century. Strong growth is particularly evident in Africa, which will add a billion people.

However, in many countries, population is stable or even falling. There are nine countries with populations larger than 20 million people that are expected to have lower populations in 2050 than today: China, Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Ukraine and Poland. The combined population of these countries is expected to fall by 10%, from 2 billion people today to 1.8 billion people in 2050.

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Source: PV Magazine

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According to US EIA, there are more than 5,000 solar farms across the US. In 2022, they produced 3.4% of the nation's electricity.

Amid record heat, solar farms help ease the strain on US power grids

Next to the rows of alfalfa, another type of farm is taking root in Southern California’s Kern County, one that’s harvesting clean, renewable energy.

Solar Star, one of the largest solar farms in the U.S., has a peak output of 586 megawatts.

“These panels track the sun all day,” said Alicia Knapp, president and CEO of BHE Renewables, which owns Solar Star. (I’ll double-check all quotes)

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Source: CBS News

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Research suggests that suspending solar arrays over canals can not only generate electricity but may also reduce water evaporation in drought-prone regions.

Can America’s canals double as solar farms?

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Some 8,000 miles of federally owned canals snake across the United States, channeling water to replenish crops, fuel hydropower plants and supply drinking water to rural communities. In the future, these narrow waterways could serve an additional role: as hubs of solar energy generation.

A coalition of environmental groups is urging the federal government to consider carpeting its canals with solar panels. The concept was pioneered in India a decade ago and will soon be tested in California for the first time. Early research suggests that suspending solar arrays over canals can not only generate electricity in land-constrained areas but may also reduce water evaporation in drought-prone regions.

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Source: Canary Media

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‘Solar grazing’ around panels is providing a lifeline to the US shepherding sector as clean energy expands.

How sheep keep solar farms out of the shade

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Stung by high fuel costs and a labor squeeze, some clean energy companies are turning to an unlikely ally — flocks of sheep — to keep their solar panels out of the shade.

The nascent practice, known as solar grazing, is so far used on only a tiny sliver of the expansive arrays of panels that are increasingly dotting rural America. But with significant financial benefits to both the renewable energy industry and the struggling mutton sector, more solar sites in the US are expected to start swapping lawnmowers for lambs.

The US solar industry has been growing rapidly: The country is expected to break solar-construction records this year by adding more than 32 gigawatts of capacity, according to a BloombergNEF outlook. That’s enough to power more than 25 million homes. At the same time, there are concerns there won’t be enough cropland to feed a growing world population, especially if acreage is covered by buildings, roads or photovoltaic installations instead.

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Source: Bloomberg

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