The Associated Press is reporting on the benefits of agrisolar development, that is, the co-location of solar panels on appropriate farm land. “There’s lots of spaces where solar could be integrated with really innovative uses of land,” said Brendan O’Neill, a University of Michigan environmental scientist who’s monitoring how planting at a new 1,752-panel facility […]
As with most inventions, necessity drove James McKinion’s design for the Helical Solar dual axis, bifacial solar panel array. In 2016, McKinion wanted to maximize the area above cut pine trees for solar energy. However, it soon became apparent that the cost of bulldozing and clearing tree stumps was cost-prohibitive. He decided to engineer a solution.
The relationship among plants, soil, insects, and water is complex. This film by Prairie Restorations, Inc. explains the unique opportunity to rebuild America’s prairies and power the country, by co-locating solar arrays with pollinator habitat. “What better use than to make it into a win-win situation. Now we can generate electricity, but under those solar […]
A recent episode of ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture podcast Voices from the Field takes a look at solar grazing, the practice of using livestock to manage the vegetation under solar panels. Sheep are widely considered the best animal for solar grazing, and they are being used in many countries with great success.
AgriSolar Clearinghouse partner Greg Barron-Gafford highlights the Biosphere 2 work in Agrivoltaics, including the application of biosphere techniques to fine-tune agrivoltaic crop growing. The project includes citizen science that engages high-school students in a long-term agrivoltaic installation at the University of Rincon High School. This video was produced by The Good Stuff.
AgriSolar Clearinghouse partner Greg Barron-Gafford describes the mutual benefits of growing crops under solar panels in large-scale solar arrays. In this video produced by Arizona Public Media, Dr. Gafford explains these benefits through an ecological approach of a salsa garden understory and a solar panel overstory.
