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Growing crops under solar panels

fastcompany.com

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Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#51

Post by sapling-ginger »

schiffern wrote: post #44
defrost wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Picture of sheep grazing under panels in Australia: Solar farm trial shows improved fleece on merino sheep grazed under panels https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-05-30/solar-farm-graz... Note the room to drive between panel rows and for "boom mowers" to spread out behind a medium tractor and reach under the panels. There are also many types of vehicles used in agriculture from two storey high broad acre heavy dut…

>improved fleece on merino sheep grazed under panels Makes sense. I'm not sure the exact care instructions, but I'm pretty sure "store this garment outside unshielded in the baking sun and pouring rain for many months" isn't the official recommendation for wool. If available, sheep (and other animals) will seek cover during heavy rains and periods of high heat stress. This protects both the sheep and the wool, and bo…

Wool has a protective layer of grease, the same thing that makes your hair feels "greasy" if you don't wash your hair for a month. This grease is washed away during wool processing and sold as lanolin.

And also, the degradation that you see on sun-damaged clothing is mostly on the dye, not the underlying fabric itself.

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#52

Post by onethought »

downrightmike wrote: post #47
thethethethe wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would we destroy pristine desert, which is rapidly disappearing, when we could cover land that has already been disturbed, like parking lots, building roofs, and farmland? Deserts are important ecosystems regardless of their immediate utility to industrial society

It plain makes more sense to generate the power as close to use as possible

It doesn’t make that much sense. We can transmit power pretty long distances these days.

I don’t understand “don’t disturb the desert” - why? It’s not just useless to us… it’s useless to most living things.

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#53

Post by schiffern »

sapling-ginger wrote: post #51
schiffern wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>improved fleece on merino sheep grazed under panels Makes sense. I'm not sure the exact care instructions, but I'm pretty sure "store this garment outside unshielded in the baking sun and pouring rain for many months" isn't the official recommendation for wool. If available, sheep (and other animals) will seek cover during heavy rains and periods of high heat stress. This protects both the sheep and the wool, and bo…

Wool has a protective layer of grease, the same thing that makes your hair feels "greasy" if you don't wash your hair for a month. This grease is washed away during wool processing and sold as lanolin. And also, the degradation that you see on sun-damaged clothing is mostly on the dye, not the underlying fabric itself.

> Wool has a protective layer of grease

Right, it's called lanolin.

It's also true that lanolin + shade and rain cover is better than lanolin alone. No protection is 100%.

> degradation that you see on sun-damaged clothing is mostly on the dye

"Mostly." We agree damage is done to the fiber. ;)

By design, modern dyes often act to protect fibers, soaking up energetic photons before they can damage the fibers themselves. In their absence, undyed fibers can be more susceptible to damage.

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#54

Post by SteveGerencser »

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #42
sourcecodeplz wrote: post #24

Just plant that type of grass the herbivores really like and let the cows, sheep and goats roam. We can't only eat plants we need cheese too.

Yes this, and car parking lots

And over the top of every aqueduct, storm channel, and man made 'river' designed to deliver water to large urban areas. Generates power and helps reduce that annoying evaporation.

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#55

Post by schiffern »

mminer237 wrote: post #31
detourdog wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can tell you are no farmer. No tractor is needed in a field maintained by grazing. If tbe panels are mounted high enough sunlight will be cast on the ground for a period each day.

I am a farmer, and this doesn't make sense. Grazing fields aren't really growing crops. Even if this is just crops that are picked by hand (it mentions broccoli), they typically still have huge machines follow the laborers for them to deposit them in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKyxMKO2kyU I can't see any good way to harvest a field with solar panels that isn't so inefficiently laid out that it would be better t…

>Grazing fields aren't really growing crops.

Right, they grow food for animals, which walk around the field and graze on it autonomously. Hey, I wonder if that's why they're called that... :)

I'm not really sure what the point is in making this observation. Just a "farmer vs rancher" thing, or something deeper?

>I can't see any good way to harvest a field with solar panels

See above.

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#56

Post by ceejayoz »

tengbretson wrote: post #36

There are solar farms being installed on previously very productive farm land near me. Between the thousands of truckloads of gravel and the steel piles being driven into the ground as far as the eye can see, I doubt the land will productively grow food of any kind for a century or more. edit: I apologize if this is difficult to hear.

We've plenty of productive farmland.

We don't yet have enough renewable energy.

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#58

Post by eru »

thethethethe wrote: post #21
crooked-v wrote: post #17

I really don't get why people keep coming up with all these elaborate plans to mix solar panels with other stuff that's in active use, instead of just putting fields of them out in non-endangered desert elevated enough off the ground that they won't actively interfere with local animals.

Why would we destroy pristine desert, which is rapidly disappearing, when we could cover land that has already been disturbed, like parking lots, building roofs, and farmland? Deserts are important ecosystems regardless of their immediate utility to industrial society

Deserts are rapidly disappearing?

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#59

Post by eru »

onethought wrote: post #52
downrightmike wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It plain makes more sense to generate the power as close to use as possible

It doesn’t make that much sense. We can transmit power pretty long distances these days. I don’t understand “don’t disturb the desert” - why? It’s not just useless to us… it’s useless to most living things.

> We can transmit power pretty long distances these days.

Engineering feasibility is not the same as economic viability.

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#60

Post by eru »

gumby wrote: post #39

I’ve long wondered why solar panels and wind turbines aren’t colocated, as the power transmission infrastructure can be shared. In Germany, power companies are installing turbines in farmers’s fields. Solar is harder (but you could mount it higher — harder to wash though). I’ve seen solar installations in India overgrown with vegetation.

> I’ve seen solar installations in India overgrown with vegetation.

I wonder what the institutional setup behind that is. Whoever gets power from the solar installation has a clear incentive to keep them from being overgrown, so I assume there must be some horrible corrupt principle-agent conflict style stuff going on in the background. (Very typical of India, alas.)

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