A tool helps solar power and farming co-exist

A new tool optimises PV materials for energy generation and crop growth

Spotted: There is a growing demand for clean power generation. However, in certain rural settings where space needs to be set aside for farms, traditional, large-scale solar farms aren’t feasible. Agrivoltaics, the use of solar panels combined with an agricultural setting, could provide the answer, allowing a balance between food production and renewable energy generation. 

Scientists at Swansea University have developed an innovative tool that can identify the best semi-transparent materials to be used within agrivoltaics, so that the panels achieve effective solar power generation while also enabling crops to grow underneath the panels. This would mean energy and crop generation could occur on the same plots of land.

The tool does this by predicting the light transmission, absorption, and power generation of different PV materials using geographical, physical, and electrical measurements. The team’s research demonstrated that the key to finding the most successful outcome of agrivoltaics is identifying the best material with specific bandgaps and absorption properties, to create an optimum environment for both power generation and for specific crops to thrive.

Using the tool could enable researchers to more effectively balance food production with green energy generation, by fine-tuning the PV material needed to optimise results. These kinds of semi-transparent panels could be used on the roofs of greenhouses, or installed on a slant on the ground so that crops could continue to grow beneath them.

Written By: Jessica Wallis