AGRIVOLTAICS

Could the use of tinted and semi-transparent solar panels result in leafier and more nutritious plants and boost the income of farms through electricity generation?

Researchers at the University of Cambridge say they have demonstrated the use of such solar panels to generate electricity and produce “nutritionally-superior” crops simultaneously, which they believe can result in higher incomes for farmers and maximise the use of agricultural land.

The use of crops and electricity have already been produced simultaneously using semi-transparent solar panels – a technique called ‘agrivoltaics’.

But in a new adaptation, the researchers at Cambridge used orange-tinted panels to make the best use of the wavelengths, or colours, of light that could pass through them.

They used basil and spinach plants as test crops and grew them under tinted solar panels that absorbed light from the blue and green parts of the spectrum, while filtering the orange and red lights to the crops below, which is important for photosynthesis.

While the crop receives less than half the total amount of light it would get if grown in a standard agricultural system, the colours passing through the panels are said to be the ones most suitable for its growth -link