Agrivoltaics: A Sustainable Synergy Between Agriculture and Solar Energy • Hacker News Board

Re: Agrivoltaics: A Sustainable Synergy Between Agriculture and Solar Energy

#41

Post by cellularmitosis » Sat, May 13, 2023, 5:40 PM UTC

olddustytrail wrote: post #21

mirpetri wrote: post #13

Plants love sun, why would I put them below a panel into shade. Article mentions blueberries which I grow and those which get the sunshine only half of the day (partly in shade) don't have the same sweet taste as other in better sunny spots of my garden.

> Plants love sun No. Some plants love direct sunshine and others don't.

Unfortunately the article just hand-waves on this point, leaving it at "certain crops":

> However, certain crops are better suited for this system due to their ability to thrive under partial shade.

Re: Agrivoltaics: A Sustainable Synergy Between Agriculture and Solar Energy

#42

Post by ianai » Sat, May 13, 2023, 5:41 PM UTC

baron816 wrote: post #8

MadcapJake wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're correct that this is limited to manual harvesting but isn't that pretty common for partial shade crops?

Partial shade crops include broccoli, asparagus, kale, carrots, brussels sprouts, peas…basically all the healthy stuff. Adding a whole second revenue stream to their production would make them more competitive with the unhealthy stuff (corn, rice, wheat).

Corn is an absolute miracle. It probably took hundreds of years for native Americans to cultivate and domesticate corn to the nutrient crop we know. Those three crops feed humanity. They shouldn’t be shunned for what modern food processing practices. The US alone produces enough corn to feed well over 2 billion people per year.

Re: Agrivoltaics: A Sustainable Synergy Between Agriculture and Solar Energy

#43

Post by Rhapso » Sat, May 13, 2023, 5:47 PM UTC

hosh wrote: post #34

This is a specific application of a broader design pattern found in the permaculture world: planting combinations of plants at different canopy layers, ecological functions, and yields. The solar panels would be taking the place of an understory or shrub canopy layer, while there are herbaceous, ground cover, and root zone layers you can work with. While solar panels have an yield useful for humans, it would be even…

How do solar panels interact with condensation?

Re: Agrivoltaics: A Sustainable Synergy Between Agriculture and Solar Energy

#44

Post by mrDmrTmrJ » Sat, May 13, 2023, 5:48 PM UTC

hosh wrote: post #34

This is a specific application of a broader design pattern found in the permaculture world: planting combinations of plants at different canopy layers, ecological functions, and yields. The solar panels would be taking the place of an understory or shrub canopy layer, while there are herbaceous, ground cover, and root zone layers you can work with. While solar panels have an yield useful for humans, it would be even…

Providing shade and lowering peak temperatures - allowing sensitive plants to survive in a broader range of climate & light conditions.

Re: Agrivoltaics: A Sustainable Synergy Between Agriculture and Solar Energy

#45

Post by ianai » Sat, May 13, 2023, 5:49 PM UTC

samwillis wrote: post #40

ianai wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah but now supplemented with a push to legalize child labor in the US.

Child labour is already legal (to some extent) in agriculture, unfortunately.

And even more often overlooked by those benefiting from it.

Re: Agrivoltaics: A Sustainable Synergy Between Agriculture and Solar Energy

#46

Post by konschubert » Sat, May 13, 2023, 6:06 PM UTC

weinzierl wrote: post #25

One of the incentives the article doesn't mention is property tax. Where I live, agricultural land is taxed much less than other property. The moment you put solar on your meadow you pay the regular rate. I think it would be fair if property kept its agricultural tax status if it is used in an environmentally friendly way.

But in turn, this means that solar plants will be developed to have pretend-farming below it.

Re: Agrivoltaics: A Sustainable Synergy Between Agriculture and Solar Energy

#47

Post by baron816 » Sat, May 13, 2023, 6:11 PM UTC

ianai wrote: post #42

baron816 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Partial shade crops include broccoli, asparagus, kale, carrots, brussels sprouts, peas…basically all the healthy stuff. Adding a whole second revenue stream to their production would make them more competitive with the unhealthy stuff (corn, rice, wheat).

Corn is an absolute miracle. It probably took hundreds of years for native Americans to cultivate and domesticate corn to the nutrient crop we know. Those three crops feed humanity. They shouldn’t be shunned for what modern food processing practices. The US alone produces enough corn to feed well over 2 billion people per year.

Sure, but it’s just imbalanced in people’s diets, partially because of the cost differential.

Re: Agrivoltaics: A Sustainable Synergy Between Agriculture and Solar Energy

#48

Post by pfdietz » Sat, May 13, 2023, 6:21 PM UTC

seydor wrote: post #30

PVs are always raised off the ground. This is not some new invention, people just planted some stuff under the PVs. You can also get some goats to clean the weeds in the place before that. They will appreciate the shaded area (but hopefully not the cables)

> PVs are always raised off the ground.

Not true.

https://www.erthos.com/

Re: Agrivoltaics: A Sustainable Synergy Between Agriculture and Solar Energy

#49

Post by vrglvrglvrgl » Sat, May 13, 2023, 6:31 PM UTC

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Re: Agrivoltaics: A Sustainable Synergy Between Agriculture and Solar Energy

#50

Post by shalmanese » Sat, May 13, 2023, 7:56 PM UTC

samwillis wrote: post #24

Gasp0de wrote: post #2

I would assume that the biggest factor in this would be that the racks and solar panels make it very difficult to use large machinery such as tractors and harvesting machines? Somehow this isn't even addressed.

Farm machinery got "big" because it enables one human to be more productive, cover more area in one unit of time. Human time is one of the most expensive resources in farming. As we automate more farming, and move to self operated machinery, we can shrink those machines down again. We can design fleets of machines to work in tandem, and operate around other structures, such as solar. The age of the tram lines is goin…

> Human time is one of the most expensive resources in farming.

Not any more. A combine costs around a million bucks and has a total useful lifespan of about 10,000 hours which is $100 an hour (not counting maintenance and fuel costs which approx doubles this rate) which far exceeds the cost of a human operator. Capital costs exceed labor costs for almost all types of farming these days.