Solar panels open crop lands to farming energy
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Solar panels open crop lands to farming energy
1–10 of 68 posts
Re: Solar panels open crop lands to farming energy
#2What about using that energy to emit light that plants can use at nighttime?
Re: Solar panels open crop lands to farming energy
#3Seems like the use case for these would be as glass in a greenhouse, setting up and taking down for planting/harvest would probably require so much labor it wouldn’t be economically viable.
Re: Solar panels open crop lands to farming energy
#4What about using that energy to emit light that plants can use at nighttime?
Many / most plants need some darkness to keep internal clocks properly functioning.
So maybe the effective day could be extended a bit, but likely not a whole lot; IDK if the increase in growth would be worth the LEDs.
Re: Solar panels open crop lands to farming energy
#5Seems like the use case for these would be as glass in a greenhouse, setting up and taking down for planting/harvest would probably require so much labor it wouldn’t be economically viable.
As this is a flexible film:
https://www.armor-group.com/en/asca
I can see it being used in agricultural applications where shadecloth is used both to kill intense sunlight (eg: Australia) and to keep birds at bay.
We have many large acreage areas fully under shade cloth here.
Re: Solar panels open crop lands to farming energy
#6What about using that energy to emit light that plants can use at nighttime?
Many / most plants need some darkness to keep internal clocks properly functioning. So maybe the effective day could be extended a bit, but likely not a whole lot; IDK if the increase in growth would be worth the LEDs.
This is exactly the kind of problem linear optimisation a.k.a operations research (O/R) is designed to assess.
Re: Solar panels open crop lands to farming energy
#7This article promotes false assumptions.
Ordinary solar can work fine in fields, because most plants don't use light beyond a few hours' worth, and endure the heat, after.
A practical arrangement is bifacial panels in vertical fencerows running north-south, to pick up morning and afternoon sun, spaced widely enough for equipment to run between. Blocking morning sun preserves dew, and blocking afternoon cuts heat stress.
Certain cereal crops get slightly lower yield from reduced light, but reduced water loss can make up the difference.
Re: Solar panels open crop lands to farming energy
#8What about using that energy to emit light that plants can use at nighttime?
Plants in fields typically get way more light than they need, as it is, and benefit from shade.
Some pepper varieties show 3x yield, given afternoon shade.
I wonder about powering UV LEDs under crop plants to control weeds.
Re: Solar panels open crop lands to farming energy
#9Even if this is a good solution, there's probably so much space for capacity in e.g. parking lots and roads that I doubt there's a need for this, other than it being beneficial to the farmers. Which is a good enough reason, but the lack of space issues for solar panels are misleading.
A sidenote on the first sentence in the article: I question the narrative that we are struggling to support 8 billion people because of lack of arable land. For instance I've seen estimates that 20-30% of perfectly good food is thrown away these days because it's not esthetically pleasing, e.g. a cucumber that might be of unusual shape. Also it's more economical to throw away food that you can't sell but is still good, than it is to give it away because then people would spend less which is bad for business. I don't know if this is a solvable problem, but it exists.
Re: Solar panels open crop lands to farming energy
#10Wish we could drive solar on empty fields in winter..