61–70 of 154 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Maybe they could combat algae blooms at the same time too
This idea is being pushed hard right now. I see it everywhere. You can't grow most crops under solar panels. And the crops you can grow will probably have a lower yield. This is an idea that's meant to push replacing farmland with solar arrays. I don't necessarily think that's a bad idea for low yield soils, but in my area they are trying to replace high-yield soils (former orchards, vineyards, market gardens) with s…
True, however I think the point is to put more shade tolerant crops under the panels. A lot of the crops we grow are not grown directly for human consumption. Consider the corn grown for the production of ethanol: why not just harvest the energy directly with solar panels there and grow lettuce or carrots? It would be good to explore other uses for the space as well, like using the panels as shade or cover for livest…
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.
To some extent that falls into the category of "fiddly details." Solar panels are probably not the best choice for use alongside bulk harvested crops like corn, wheat, soybeans and even potatoes, but an awful lot of "produce" crops are harvested by hand. The reason I say "fiddly details" is because questions like "what's the best spacing between rows of panels" and "do I plant under the panels or just between rows" c…
It's absurd now but... imagine those crop-water-er things, with a central pivot (ed: "central-pivot-irrigation").
What if instead of just a line of watering, that rotated around, it was a vast overhead rotating circle? Like 80% by area solar panels overhanigng. But also, one radian with all the farm stuff: watering, tiller, planter, harvester? An polar-plotter of tools, with solar panels taking up most everywhere else.
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Yes, I think a single picture of a farm setup this way would have increased the value of this article quite a bit.
This[0] is a berry farm I was just at. As you can see it’s already covered to protect from extra sun. No tractor could fit anyways. This[1] is one version of agrovoltaics. The solar panels act like window blinds. They can be configured to follow the sun but also can be configured to “provide optimal shade/cooling throughout the day”. [0] https://images.app.goo.gl/mSbtJjtSQRukBQqK6 [1] https://images.app.goo.gl/9kakPW…
Erm, I can see a greenhouse. I think they are made to increase temperature for the plants and not to protect from extra sun. Strawberries like sun and would not benefit from shade, unless we are talking about very intense sunlight and not much water.
Most plants usually want as much sun as they can get, so long as the temperature stays in their desired range and enough water is avaiable. So in dry places with lots of sun, acrovoltaics can make some sense, or for plants that like indeed shade, like tomatoes. But it is really not a magic bullet for growing corn and harvesting electricity at the same time.
Sheeps grazing under solar panels seems like a working solution that does not need too much effort around it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To some extent that falls into the category of "fiddly details." Solar panels are probably not the best choice for use alongside bulk harvested crops like corn, wheat, soybeans and even potatoes, but an awful lot of "produce" crops are harvested by hand. The reason I say "fiddly details" is because questions like "what's the best spacing between rows of panels" and "do I plant under the panels or just between rows" c…
Heck yes. It's absurd now but... imagine those crop-water-er things, with a central pivot (ed: "central-pivot-irrigation"). What if instead of just a line of watering, that rotated around, it was a vast overhead rotating circle? Like 80% by area solar panels overhanigng. But also, one radian with all the farm stuff: watering, tiller, planter, harvester? An polar-plotter of tools, with solar panels taking up most ever…
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.
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
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].
And that's France. Countries like the US have a lot more space, especially parking lots. There's enough space for solar panels.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/02/06/...