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Double harvest: Vertical solar panels and crops thrive side by side (techxplore.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/environment@beehaw.org
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[–] 2 points 1 year ago* (4 children)

Vertical east-west orientation. I wonder how the latitude of Denmark factors in to the crop success as there’s considerable reliance on southern exposure for sunlight as you get farther north from the equator. Would the crops be more impacted at the equator?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Crop success should get better as you go south and get directly under the sun -- the panels will cast smaller shadows.

    Solar efficiency might get much worse.

    In the end, it's a range: you can angle the solar panels not at all, or a little bit, or a lot. The effect on crops will vary and eventually you'll have to stop planting in the persistent shadow of the panels. But perhaps there are lower-light broadleaf vegetables you could plant there.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    I thought it would be the opposite. As you move north, the crops get more sun because the sun is farther to the south whereas closer to the equator it’s mostly due east to due west so the crops would get shaded more by the panels. But my handle on geometry is poor.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    I'd think east-west bifacial vertical PV makes more sense the further from the equator one gets, simply because of how much wilder the sun angle swings are over the course of a year.

    One could of course set up something mechanized to follow the sun over the course of the year, but that's a new point of failure that could easily negate the advantage of agrivoltaics being set-and-forget.

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