The complicated global situation caused by climate change, the war in Ukraine, as well as the consequences of the Covid pandemic, has led to a serious increase in humanity’s food needs. This has further accelerated the need for a transition to greener energy sources and more security in the food system.
On this occasion, increasing attention is being paid to the so-called agrovoltaics – a combination of agricultural crops and photovoltaic installations on the same area. Until recently, it was believed that these two activities could not coexist together without interfering with each other. Now, however, a number of experimental farms are showing that combining crops and solar can actually yield almost double the benefits under the right conditions.
Studies and attempts to establish this claim are still in development and ongoing, but it seems that the potential is enormous. In the near future, agrovoltaics could be a successful new approach to a more sustainable future.
What are the benefits of agrovoltaic systems?
The idea of developing the same plot of land for solar power and conventional agriculture originated in Germany in the 1980s by local scientists. In the following ten years, many experiments were carried out in different countries – Japan, the USA, the Netherlands, India, Italy, France, Germany, Chile, etc., with the participation of different crops and formations of solar panels.
The results are that if the panels are correctly positioned – at a certain height and at a certain spacing, not only do they not cause damage, but they even increase yields, especially in dry and arid regions. The reason is that solar panels act like an umbrella that does not completely stop sunlight from penetrating the crops, while at the same time forming some shade that is beneficial for certain crops in certain climates.
For example, jalapeno and cherry tomatoes on an agrovoltaic farm in Massachusetts, USA, are doubling their harvest.
The other advantage is that the “umbrella” of the panels also slightly slows down the rate of evaporation of water from the soil, which helps plants in dry regions. In addition, due to the cooling effect of the plants, there is also a slight increase in electricity production under the solar panels.
