Studies from all over the world have shown crop yields increase when food crops are partially shaded with solar panels. Agrivoltaic yield increases are possible because of the microclimate created underneath the solar panels that conserves water and protects plants from excess sun, wind, hail and soil erosion. The temperatures are cooler, milder and all around more pleasant for plants.
Last year, we found that you could increase strawberry yield by 18 per cent under solar panels compared to strawberries in an open field. This agrivoltaic crop yield bump has been shown for dozens of other crops and solar panel combinations all over the world, including basil, broccoli, celery, corn, grapes, kale, lettuce, pasture grass, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes and more.
Our new study shows that the microclimate that benefits plants beneath agrivoltaics is maintained even when the solar is not generating any electricity.
We analyzed the lifespans of key agrivoltaic system components, experimentally measuring microclimate impacts of two agrivoltaic arrays. The results showed agrivoltaics still benefit crops even when unpowered.
You can share energy through the grid. You already do if you have a grid following inverter, and that’s the way to do it. Local production and distribution, but no single point of failure and everybody contributes to thr maintenance of the grid. Perhaps giant improvements in solar panels and storage will make microgrids feasible everywhere, but until then the grid is the best thing we have to provide both reliability and allow for local distribution.
The energy-sharing community-laws starting around Europe are not about running cables between neighbors, but allowing the accounting and billing of energy recognizing the already existing local distribution that the grid allows.