In A Battle Between Solar And Agriculture, What If Farms Could Have Both?

[TTL News 308]

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Competition between agriculture and solar development in the Northeast continues, but some researchers suggest they don’t need to be mutually exclusive endeavors.  

Max Zhang, a professor of mechanical engineering at Cornell University is researching agrivoltaics, which combines solar panels with agriculture.  

“We set up microclimate monitoring at solar farms to understand how much solar radiation can reach the ground under the panel or near the panel, what is the soil moisture like, temperature — so those all have a direct implication on what kind of crops can thrive under those conditions,” Zhang said.  

There is existing research that shows what crops can grow under certain conditions, so once Zhang has gathered that data, he will be able to look at what works best in specific regions

 

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