Magenta solar panels may be agrivoltaics’ cleverest trick yet
See-through solar cells harvest some wavelengths of light to make electricity, while passing through the red and blue wavelengths that plants need. In a new agrivoltaics experiment, broccoli yields held steady.
Vegetable farms and solar farms both require abundant sunlight and open land. To optimize the use of limited land, a new study proposes a unique solution—growing crops beneath semi-transparent solar panels that filter sunlight. The study, published in Cell Reports Physical Science, suggests that certain wavelengths of sunlight can be used to generate electricity while still allowing essential light to reach crops.
Broccoli grown beneath these magenta-colored panels showed no reduction in yield, and even exhibited increased efficiency in converting sunlight to biomass. If just one percent of U.S. farmland were dedicated to agrivoltaics, it could potentially meet up to 20 percent of the nation's electricity demands. While traditional panels obstruct light and reduce crop growth, the colored photovoltaic cells allow for a dual-purpose use of the land.
However, further research is needed to confirm these findings across larger plots and varying climates.
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