Scientists grow broccoli under semi-transparent solar panels – with a magenta tint

Résumé détaillé

Study finds broccoli grown under semi-transparent solar panels tinted magenta takes 30% longer to grow than broccoli in full sunlight, but gets just as big.

Broccoli grown under semi-transparent solar panels tinted magenta takes 30 per cent longer to grow than those in full sunlight, but they get just as big, a study has found.

The research out of Europe, where a backlash against solar “fields of iron” is making dual-land use a political imperative, found that one hectare of integrated solar and horticulture could produce the same combined amount of broccoli and electricity as 1.18 hectares of just broccoli or just solar energy generation.

“Despite substantial reductions in incident light, the investigated systems support fresh biomass production and most macronutrient concentrations comparable to full-sun conditions, while increasing the photosynthetic efficiency and radiation use efficiency,” the study in CellPress journal found.

“Overall, these findings provide proof-of-concept evidence for the potential of wavelength-selective PV technologies to support combined food and electricity production.”

The results could have been even better had they used modern silicon-PV cells rather than the old-school cadmium-telluride modules that were available when the research team needed them, the study suggested.

Solar developers have resisted making utility scale solar truly dual use to date. Standardised designs and equipment that don’t need to be adjusted to withstand animals or be lifted higher off the ground to account for cropping machines is cheaper to do.

But in Europe, land constraints and political activism mean crops and farming under solar are becoming a necessity, to the point that German company Schletter is already signing sales for cow- and horticulture-friendly systems that stand metres off the ground.

In Denmark, the rapid growth of solar from just 4 per cent of the grid to 13 per cent is now a political movement, inflamed by imagery such as photos of a solar farm surrounding a town called Hjolderup in Jutland (below).

But it wasn’t all positive news from the Swedish and Italian research team, led by Mälardalen…

Début de l'article, extrait de RenewEconomy. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.