@WiteWulf yup, lift them up and let plants and animals use the space under. I'm sure I've seen research that the biodiversity of fields increased after Solar panels are installed
@WiteWulf I was reading recently that since solar fields don't have any specific requirements around grazing or nitrogen fixation, they've started planting wildflowers and brushes, which are massively beneficial for insect populations and downstream ecosystems like birds. they described grass fields as a graveyard by comparison.
But I understand that here in Louisiana, it's impossible. You see, if we covered our car parks then the cars we're forced to use wouldn't get steaming hot under the summer sun.
Sorry, it's very important that we make everyone extremely miserable for no reason. It's extremely important that we don't provide any shade to parked cars here in hot miserable Louisiana.
We also got rid of window awnings. That was very important also.
As panels are getting cheap, the support structure becomes a serious part of the cost (and even of the embedded energy). You need a lot more steel and foundations for such elevated panels.
Not sure about now, but not too long ago parking lots were money-losing PR projects(look us being green), while the field ones were serious.
Once we have enough PV to saturate summer peaks, every next panel produces less useful power. So lower cost is critical
(there are some plants that, in some parts of the world, have been shown to grow better in the partial shade provided by solar panels than they would in the full sun)
(I suspect that they would be a bit higher up than they seem to be in the first image)
Rooftop solar, on just HALF of the world's roofs, would produce MORE electricity than is used today from ALL sources. And would uplift all people, strengthen all people, and drive a permanent economic boom.
Let every Neighbourhood become Saudi Arabia, but free.
meh. Fields of monoculture crops have very little biodiversity and certainly aren't natural. While wild grassland under solar is pretty good. And if the field was growing corn or similar for a biofuel, then the solar covered field will create about 6 times more energy in the same area. Alternatively, there are quite a lot of crops that do very well when partially shared. Yields of strawberry under PV is better than conventional practices.
In California, where it's often quite dry, we are putting solar farms over some fields to conserve water. In some cases, crops are being planted alongside solar panels. There are many benefits from this dual use, and many applications. Of course we are a massive state "... the size of the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Kosovo and Czech Republic combined.” I imagine that in smaller countries it would be unpleasant to see solar farms everywhere you look.
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All the nations have transmission lines. Running across acres and acres, across manufacturing zones, beside residential areas, from powerplant to city to harbour.
Often VERY cheap because govt already owns land.
Put solar UNDER ALL THE LINES, mile after mile after mile.
Put the solar cells at eight feet, feed goats on the brush beneath the solar arrays, and tomatoes.
Pollinators—such as bees, butterflies, and other insects—are critical to the success of about 35 percent of global food crop production. Learn about the benefits of establishing pollinator-friendly plants under and around ground-mounted solar arrays.
"In Georgia, sheep on a solar farm is not a baaad idea We're losing vital agricultural land. But is solar the main culprit?" grist.org/climate-energy/in-ge…
Galaxy brain: large enough parking lots for a solar farm shouldn’t exist in cities and we should abolish car dependence and build walabke cities to be green.
Also infra for over solar covering car ports is 100x more expensive than some cheap panels in an field.
And I am fully ageeing with that but the point of this is one more that we should start covering car lots first before we put up endless rows in fields
Both is a great option but start with the crappy one first I guess 😉
The car lots are also "greyspace." They already have power drops for safety lighting; maybe not high-wattage enough to support the solar supply, but it should be cheaper to run more wires through the existing pipe than to till up that field and lay pipe.
covering the open car park actually benefits motorists, it can discourage birds shitting on the cars which can wreck the clearcoat, provides shelter getting in/out of the car in rough weather, plus an obvious benefit when more and more people start to drive EVs
Not green fields though. Down in Nevada there are huge fields of arrays. This probably helps the local wildlife that is probably struggling to adapt to the even hotter temperatures. I'm not a biologist though.
And yeah, paved lots in the desert are furnaces. Shade is needed. Shit melts. There's no real reason why solar arrays can't be on top other than cost. Energy is already being adapted out in the desert and piped in so it's cheaper that way.
also frankly I can't see how this would be in any way controversial to folks using the car parks. Nobody likes having to part in the sun in the summer, or get the inside of the car wet when it's raining. They would fight over the covered spots!
I agree that car parks are uglier and should be done first, but then consider the maths. The area covered by car parks is less than 1% of that used by agriculture (in the UK at least - ONS figures for agri, DVLA and back of envelope for car parks). Car parks alone will not be enough.
of course it should be both. And there’s no reason on earth why it should not be. It’s a win-win because both the agriculture and the solar panels perform better when combined.
A paper published in Nature Sustainability presents the first field-data assessment of outcomes of a multi-year study of agrivoltaics in dryland regions.
We can't usefully force a canonical ordering of these things across society, so saying "do all X before any Y" effectively turns into "never do Y". It gets used a lot as a justification for nimby antics that are holding back net zero policies.
I visited a 9GW community-energy solar array across 40 acres yesterday. Low grade farmland, never above a grade 3b. Sheep wandering around underneath, nature pond with Great Crested Newts in it and Skylarks overhead. The one remaining field had beef cattle because… that’s all you can grow… so, as a vegan, I say, why not? Better than cows! (although bog or forest would be even better)
Uhm cover both the fields and the car parks. Covering the fields is good for the plants (including the crops! higher yield!), insects and small animals on the fields.
Sometimes placing solar panels on farms actually helps. You may need less irrigation and the optimal amount of sunlight is different for various crops. This may, of course, depend on your climate: it is not "one size fits all."
I like the idea of solar paving slabs durable enough to walk on and even cover roads.
I'm surprised governments aren't scrambling to invest in these. Instead the UK wants nuclear power stations that'll cost magnitudes more, and take decades to build and integrate with the grid. Madness...
Although there is something to be said for putting solar on already-used land if there is a requirement for power there, that car park is probably half the problem - people really need to think about alternative means of travel, and if they need to travel in the first place. Would much prefer it if every public building had solar panels on their rooves.
I've actually read somewhere that covering fields with solar panels instead of mono-cultured farm land actually helps nature, especially animals that can use it to live under and find food (that would potentially not grow on farm land or be polluted with pesticides)
Also seeing as we need to focus on getting rid of cars first I kinda feel like it's a waste of resources to try to make parking cars feel better by adding shadow. 👀
Just get rid of the car parks, put down plants and the solar panels on top. Maybe even some nice parks and sitting areas under it.
some crops benefit from the shade actually. Some farmers who aren't yet bought out by big corpos need the extra dosh from hosting solar to stay independent too.
Why not just get rid of car parks entirely and make public transit freely accessible?
Solar panels actually improve the yields of raspberries and grapes, because those crops are sensitive to too much direct sunlight. I'm sure there are other crops that benefit, I just haven't seen any papers that talk about them.
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You've seen drivers right? And what they do to the bollards and barriers in parking lots? If I'm the power company, I'm not putting expensive generating infrastructure where people are going to be constantly parking their cars right next to the pillars holding it up.
Attached: 1 image
@kellogh@hachyderm.io
Part 1: #ClimateChange
Wow.
Solution to the #ClimateCrisis using #SolarPanels for #farming: #Agrivoltaics
"Properly designed solar installations can increase food #harvests, reduce the need for #irrigation…
At the risk of being contrarian to the admin of my instance (😬):
Intelligent use of solar panels *can* actually enhance the productivity of agricultural land. Turns out a lot of plants and animals evolved in environments that are occasionally shaded. Who knew? 🤷♀️
And car parks large enough to support a solar farm shouldn't exist to begin with. Put housing and mixed-use buildings there with panels on the roof, instead of panels over an endless plane of tarmac.
@mwyman Covering fields allows farmers to grow shade plants like greens while reducing water consumption. It's a good idea in many ways. (There's nothing wrong with covering car parks also.)_
Actually, there have been experiments with elevated solar panels over the fields and some crops grow better with partial sun than with full sun full time. It also shields the crop from some things, including helping to shield the crop from extreme wind events and some kinds of bird damage. I would rather see the solar panels on buildings and car parks and bridges and protecting rivers from excessive operation, but that doesn't mean you can't use them over your fields as well when there's an advantage in that.
ABC Rural News provides authoritative coverage of the business and politics of Australian farming, livestock, forestry, agriculture and primary production
Selon un calendrier progressif étalé du 1^er juillet 2026 au 1^er juillet 2028, les parcs de stationnement existants de plus de 1 500 m² devront comporter des ombrières sur la moitié de leur superficie.
@The Tired Horizon @stux⚡ also, panels in cities are better at producing energy that will be used inside the city
but having panels in the (actively used also for food production) farms also means that you have electrical infrastructure in the farms, where you could use it to recharge / power electrical farming equipment instead of having to power it with fossil fuels
if we must have cars, I guess, but will drivers pay for the infrastructure, especially to replace what they crash into? Also, if all of the cars are electric, would such an installation of grid tied chargers and solar panels be a net producer or consumer of electricity?
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Gary
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •@stux
stux⚡️
in reply to Gary • • •Gary
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Christopher M0YNG
in reply to Gary • • •stux⚡️
in reply to Christopher M0YNG • • •@M0YNG @WiteWulf If it;s helping... 💡 i am all for it
But let's also start covering car places to begin with
Graham Sutherland -> EMF 📞8087
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Not A Number
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Also, roads, railways, other public infrastructure...
Marcos Dione
in reply to Not A Number • • •Not A Number
in reply to Marcos Dione • • •Ariaflame
in reply to Marcos Dione • • •Phoenix Paulina Schmid
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Darkpaw
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •There's some rudimentary info here on why it's actually a good idea: science.howstuffworks.com/envi…
Also, we can have solar panels on BOTH fields and car parks!
Adding Solar Panels to Farms Is Good for Plants, Animals and People
Allison Troutner (HowStuffWorks)Isaac Ji Kuo
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Both is better!
But I understand that here in Louisiana, it's impossible. You see, if we covered our car parks then the cars we're forced to use wouldn't get steaming hot under the summer sun.
Sorry, it's very important that we make everyone extremely miserable for no reason. It's extremely important that we don't provide any shade to parked cars here in hot miserable Louisiana.
We also got rid of window awnings. That was very important also.
Whalejuicesmoothie
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Marius
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •As panels are getting cheap, the support structure becomes a serious part of the cost (and even of the embedded energy). You need a lot more steel and foundations for such elevated panels.
Not sure about now, but not too long ago parking lots were money-losing PR projects(look us being green), while the field ones were serious.
Once we have enough PV to saturate summer peaks, every next panel produces less useful power. So lower cost is critical
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to stux⚡️ • •@stux⚡ #whyNotBoth?
(there are some plants that, in some parts of the world, have been shown to grow better in the partial shade provided by solar panels than they would in the full sun)
(I suspect that they would be a bit higher up than they seem to be in the first image)
like this
Barbara Monaco e Steven Heywood like this.
Cainmark Does Not Comply 🚲 reshared this.
Rachel Greenham
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Kevin Russell
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Rooftop solar, on just HALF of the world's roofs, would produce MORE electricity than is used today from ALL sources. And would uplift all people, strengthen all people, and drive a permanent economic boom.
Let every Neighbourhood become Saudi Arabia, but free.
#climate
theconversation.com/solar-pane…
Solar panels on half the world’s roofs could meet its entire electricity demand – new research
The ConversationDave Mc
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Barbara Monaco
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Of course we are a massive state "... the size of the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Kosovo and Czech Republic combined.”
I imagine that in smaller countries it would be unpleasant to see solar farms everywhere you look.
Marvin Ellis
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Kevin Russell
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •All the nations have transmission lines. Running across acres and acres, across manufacturing zones, beside residential areas, from powerplant to city to harbour.
Often VERY cheap because govt already owns land.
Put solar UNDER ALL THE LINES, mile after mile after mile.
Put the solar cells at eight feet, feed goats on the brush beneath the solar arrays, and tomatoes.
T. J. Bombadil
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •mau 🏳️🌈#EndFossilFuels
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Solar power plants are 100% compatible with farming and biodiversity.
The area we will need to cover is a tiny fraction of the total used for farming, and they are not mutually exclusive.
energy.gov/eere/solar/articles…
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrivo…
Buzzing Around Solar: Pollinator Habitat Under Solar Arrays
Energy.govElizabeth Sudduth
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •We're losing vital agricultural land. But is solar the main culprit?"
grist.org/climate-energy/in-ge…
In Georgia, sheep on a solar farm is not a baaad idea
Emily Jones (Grist)Carlton Gibson
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •also this though…
axios.com/local/des-moines/202…
Bodhipaksa
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •I'm probably not the only person to point this out, but fields that are shaded by solar panels have been shown to be more productive.
Covering both is fine with me.
Dizzy
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Zac Bowling 🥑
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Galaxy brain: large enough parking lots for a solar farm shouldn’t exist in cities and we should abolish car dependence and build walabke cities to be green.
Also infra for over solar covering car ports is 100x more expensive than some cheap panels in an field.
stux⚡️
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •I see a lot of: "why not both"
And I am fully ageeing with that but the point of this is one more that we should start covering car lots first before we put up endless rows in fields
Both is a great option but start with the crappy one first I guess 😉
Mark T. Tomczak
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •derptron
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Not green fields though. Down in Nevada there are huge fields of arrays. This probably helps the local wildlife that is probably struggling to adapt to the even hotter temperatures. I'm not a biologist though.
And yeah, paved lots in the desert are furnaces. Shade is needed. Shit melts. There's no real reason why solar arrays can't be on top other than cost. Energy is already being adapted out in the desert and piped in so it's cheaper that way.
spacebarbarian
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Ben Todd
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •excited for the mastodon rise
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Generally agree, but also don't sleep on agrivoltatics for land that's already food-production oriented.
Also, done properly, solar fields can actually help re-wild, which addresses ANOTHER of our major crises, the biodiversity crisis.
Also also: let's just get rid of the effin' cars anyway.
jan partisano ullrich
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •mj
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Tom Walker
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Jace 🔥❤️🔥💖❤️
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Lee
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Jeff Bronks
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Peter Brown
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •of course it should be both. And there’s no reason on earth why it should not be. It’s a win-win because both the agriculture and the solar panels perform better when combined.
news.arizona.edu/news/agrivolt…
Agrivoltaics Proves Mutually Beneficial Across Food, Water, Energy Nexus
University of Arizona NewsJoshua Barretto
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Richard 🔶UK #RejoinEU
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Darwin Woodka
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •stux⚡️
in reply to Darwin Woodka • • •Bill Zaumen
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Sometimes placing solar panels on farms actually helps. You may need less irrigation and the optimal amount of sunlight is different for various crops. This may, of course, depend on your climate: it is not "one size fits all."
nrdc.org/stories/made-shade-pr…
Michal
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •The Sleight Doctor 🃏🍉
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •I like the idea of solar paving slabs durable enough to walk on and even cover roads.
I'm surprised governments aren't scrambling to invest in these. Instead the UK wants nuclear power stations that'll cost magnitudes more, and take decades to build and integrate with the grid. Madness...
UkeleleEric
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Max Lee
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •I've actually read somewhere that covering fields with solar panels instead of mono-cultured farm land actually helps nature, especially animals that can use it to live under and find food (that would potentially not grow on farm land or be polluted with pesticides)
Also seeing as we need to focus on getting rid of cars first I kinda feel like it's a waste of resources to try to make parking cars feel better by adding shadow. 👀
Just get rid of the car parks, put down plants and the solar panels on top. Maybe even some nice parks and sitting areas under it.
Mochi
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Szabó Em, Enigma He-Art Director
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •some crops benefit from the shade actually. Some farmers who aren't yet bought out by big corpos need the extra dosh from hosting solar to stay independent too.
Why not just get rid of car parks entirely and make public transit freely accessible?
Gurre Vildskägg
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Start with all car parks, yes. And irrigation canals. And roofs that aren't usable as terraces or greenspaces.
And! There's some crops & livestock that actually do well under raised solar panels! That should become normalized.
Sjaak K. 🇳🇱🇪🇺🍋
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •🐜
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •C.S.Strowbridge
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Do both... WITH THE POWER OF AGRIVOLTAICS!!!!!!
(Just imagine reverb there.)
Solar panels actually improve the yields of raspberries and grapes, because those crops are sensitive to too much direct sunlight. I'm sure there are other crops that benefit, I just haven't seen any papers that talk about them.
Patrick Schmitz
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Alison Meeks
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •- YouTube
www.youtube.comToni Aittoniemi
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •RozNonofurbsns
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •dragonfrog
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •You've seen drivers right? And what they do to the bollards and barriers in parking lots? If I'm the power company, I'm not putting expensive generating infrastructure where people are going to be constantly parking their cars right next to the pillars holding it up.
Paul Chernoff
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Solar panels actually benefit many crops by providing shade. I'm sure it works poorly for wheat and corn and other grains.
Covering car parks is an excellent idea.
Andrew Koster
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •You are on the wrong track, Stux.
#AgriVoltaics
*Both* make a lot of sense, climate permitting OFC:
mastodon.social/@HistoPol/1099…
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 (@HistoPol@mastodon.social)
MastodonBleistifterin
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Alyssa Voronin
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •At the risk of being contrarian to the admin of my instance (😬):
Intelligent use of solar panels *can* actually enhance the productivity of agricultural land. Turns out a lot of plants and animals evolved in environments that are occasionally shaded. Who knew? 🤷♀️
And car parks large enough to support a solar farm shouldn't exist to begin with. Put housing and mixed-use buildings there with panels on the roof, instead of panels over an endless plane of tarmac.
Irina
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Scott_Mathieu
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Baessando ☭🇧🇷🇵🇸🇺🇳
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Clot
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Lee
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •audrina
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Andy Gates
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Angela Scholder
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Birdhouse in Your [Redacted]
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Der zuversichtliche Daniel
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •William B Peckham
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Sassinake! ᑐ ∪ ∩ ⊂
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •CargoBikeDad
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •plausibel
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Sati Zakito
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Edelruth, PBS Passport Holder
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Yes, but.
But there are well documented benefits to adding solar panels to fields that have crops in them.
So, both.
quoll (√)
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •cool story on running livestock under solar panels:
abc.net.au/news/rural/programs…
Solar Livestock: Running livestock in solar paddocks
www.abc.net.auVincentHao
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Mike McCaffrey
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Rémi Cardona
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •for once, I'm actually proud that my native 🇫🇷 has mandated all car parks be shaded with PV panels.
entreprendre.service-public.fr…
It's fairly recent, change is slow but you can see it.
Ombrage des parcs de stationnement existants de plus de 1 500 m²
entreprendre.service-public.froptimista 🏴☠️🏳️🌈
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Face Thumb
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
Unknown parent • •@The Tired Horizon @stux⚡ also, panels in cities are better at producing energy that will be used inside the city
but having panels in the (actively used also for food production) farms also means that you have electrical infrastructure in the farms, where you could use it to recharge / power electrical farming equipment instead of having to power it with fossil fuels
Skivling
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •😀🚲
in reply to stux⚡️ • • •