Agriculture and solar panels - win-win strategy for power engineers and farmers

Arrays of photocells are usually placed in uninhabited places where there are no fields or houses. As for the fields - this is done because, firstly, solar panels require maintenance, and no one wants to trample on its crops. Secondly, the panels cast a shadow, which negatively affects the growth of many plants.



But, as it turned out, the second factor can be an advantage rather than a disadvantage, as a result of which solar power plants will help grow shade-loving crops. There are many of them, direct sunlight just “burns” plants that love the shadow. For they perish, or do not bear fruit. The best options for combining solar panels with agriculture are now looking for scientists from the University of Arizona .



Research is being conducted in the southwestern United States, where it is sunny and dry, so shade-loving plants are not grown here. And just in this region, solar panels can be very useful, because they, shading large surface areas, reduce moisture evaporation and protect plants from direct sunlight. At the moment, the test complex is already ready. Here, the solar cells are placed at a height of 3 m from the surface of the earth - higher than what is done in a normal situation.



To control the results of the experiment, the scientists decided to use three test complexes (and, rather, beds). The first includes only plants, the second includes panels, the third includes both plants and panels. Crops - tomatoes, jalapenos and chiltepin peppers.



The results of the experiment showed that moisture evaporation actually slows down in the area where the panels stand (in fact, this is obvious, if there is a shadow, then, of course, evaporation will go at a slower rate). Soil temperature is slightly lower than the general level during the day and higher at night.



As for crops, they do feel good at all. So, chiltepin pepper grew clearly more actively under solar panels. Plant development activity was determined by the concentration of carbon dioxide. Plants that grew in the shade gave a third more of this gas than those that were forced to grow under the sun. The crop of “shadow pepper” was three times higher than that of pepper exposed in the sun.



Jalapenos felt pretty much alike both in the sun and in the shade. "Shadow" jalapenos developed 11% slower than their "solar" counterparts. "But they consumed 65% less water. There was almost no difference in yield - all within the statistical error.



Well, tomatoes in the shade developed 65% more actively than in the sun, consumed 65% less water and yielded a double crop compared to “solar” plants.



As for solar panels, then, according to scientists, a slight decrease in the temperature of structures that stood on beds with plants led to an increase in energy generation by about 3%. Due to the lower temperature of the soil and air above the plants, the temperature of the structures decreased slightly.



According to the researchers, the combination of solar cells and agricultural plantings makes it possible to reduce water consumption by plants, increase the yield of certain species, start growing shade-like varieties in places where there is a lot of sun, and also, albeit very slightly, but increase the volume of electricity generated by panels. And for workers in the fields, the presence of shade is a significant plus.