Photovoltaic shade

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I came across this in another site and thought this crowd might find it interesting. Researchers are finding that shading crops with solar panels increased yields, decreased water use.

How to expand solar power without using precious land | annotated by Andy

How to expand solar power without using precious land

readwise.io

Yet there's no need for this confrontation. Properly designed solar installations can increase food harvests, reduce the need for irrigation, revive dying lakes, rescue pollinators, restore soils, and cool overheated humans—all while producing more power than conventional solar arrays.

In 2016, for example, Barron-Gafford’s team started an AV project growing cherry tomatoes, chiltepin peppers, and jalapeños—“things to make salsa, because if all else fails, you can still eat the science,” he says. The researchers found that the panels kept plants cooler during the day and warmer at night, and they held more moisture in the air. These less-stressed plants produced just as many jalapeños, twice the crop of tomatoes, and three times the amount of chiltepin peppers as those on a control plot (2). They also needed substantially less watering, a key benefit in a time of worsening water shortages around the world. Water evaporation from the plants even helped to cool the panels and increase electricity output.