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Growing crops under solar panels

fastcompany.com

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Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#71

Post by throwaway742 »

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

I agree that protecting desert ecosystems is important, but isn't desertification more of a problem than "rapidly disappearing" desert?

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#72

Post by fbdab103 »

defrost wrote: post #33
throwuwu wrote: post #3

I’m no farmer but wouldn’t putting a whole bunch of stuff in a field make it difficult to drive a tractor through it? Like have you seen the size of modern tractors? These panels will need to be 20ft in the air with support posts really far apart to accommodate seed drills and sprayers and other equipment that the tractor pulls behind it.

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…

Why did the sheep not already have access to a shed or other form of shelter from the sun/rain?

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#73

Post by ta1243 »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #38
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.

This is the only solution that makes sense everywhere where land is not a million dollars an acre (places not California).

Arable land in England is about $10k an acre. Until the council grants permission to build housing on it, then it jumps to between $500k and $2m an acre because housing is in such short supply.

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#74

Post by downrightmike »

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.

I don't know where OP got that from, but we don't actually need to use it, an a lot of things live there. It isn't all just bare sun bleached rock and sand. https://www.desertmuseum.org/desert/sonora.php

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#75

Post by defrost »

fbdab103 wrote: post #72
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…

Why did the sheep not already have access to a shed or other form of shelter from the sun/rain?

There are some 68 million+ sheep in Australia and the barely 25 million people are facing a housing shortage ATM .. there's never been sheds and houses for sheep in Australia aside from shearing sheds that only see once per annum usage.

As you can see here [1-4] paddocks have trees, dams, etc.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi4FvVqMnBk

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5RIqsac2Hs

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McNSfo38DYI

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3SYMPabyT0

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#76

Post by vel0city »

locallost wrote: post #69

There are interesting things in the article, but I think it was never about available land use, but just another knee jerk argument against solar panels. Example: Disneyland Europe will generate over 30 GWh per year from just covering a part of its parking lot. And if France makes it mandatory to cover all "substantial" parking lots it will generate as much electricity from just that as 10 nuclear power plants [1]. A…

As someone in Texas I'd really love is more parking lots had even partial covered parking with solar above. Please. It gets dang hot out here, I'd love the shade.

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#77

Post by Schroedingersat »

throwuwu wrote: post #3

I’m no farmer but wouldn’t putting a whole bunch of stuff in a field make it difficult to drive a tractor through it? Like have you seen the size of modern tractors? These panels will need to be 20ft in the air with support posts really far apart to accommodate seed drills and sprayers and other equipment that the tractor pulls behind it.

The crops that are best suited to giant tractors also tend to be less suited to agrivoltaics.

They also include energy crops, so you can go from producing no food on land with unprofitable crops that take subsidies to growing food on the land at a profit and producing energy.

The land taken up by energy crops exceeds the land needed by solar by over an order of magnitude.

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#78

Post by Schroedingersat »

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.

Yeah, but that one solar farm that tried to game farming subsidies by letting goats roam with no change to the panels or racking had 3 panels damaged so that's impossible /s

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#79

Post by Schroedingersat »

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.

In many countries it's hostile legislation to make it worse and increase soft costs. Australia was only recently allowed to include batteries on solar.

Re: Growing crops under solar panels

#80

Post by Schroedingersat »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #50
orbital-decay wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's for the areas with excessive insolation - the idea is to use solar panels to create some shadow, reducing the exposure to sunlight for crops and wildlife, which benefits both.

Which means bifacial panels would suit even better

Bifacial panels are the default now. They're just better.
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