Solar panels and farming can work together to put more food on the table and more money in the pockets of farmers.
— 1. an interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both. 2. a mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups. By those definitions, researchers at Cornell University led by graduate student Henry Williams have identified a symbiotic relationship between solar panels and agriculture.
“There is potential for agrivoltaic systems — where agriculture and solar panels coexist — to provide increased passive cooling through taller panel heights, more reflective ground cover and higher evapo-transpiration rates compared to traditional solar farms,” added senior author Max Zhang, a professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell, “We can generate renewable electricity and conserve farmland through agrivoltaic systems.
The engineers showed that solar panels mounted over vegetation reveal surface temperature drops compared to those arrays built over bare ground. Solar panels were mounted 4 meters above a soybean crop and the solar modules showed temperature reductions by up to 10 degrees Celsius, compared with solar panels mounted a half-meter above bare soil.
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