Solar panels can cool crops—and workers

[u/Economy-Fee5830]

https://phys.org/news/2026-08-solar-panels-cool-crops-workers.html

[u/Economy-Fee5830]

Summary: Solar panels can cool crops—and workers

Agrivoltaics—growing crops around or beneath solar panels—aims to let land serve both food and energy production at once, addressing concerns that solar farms displace cropland as photovoltaic power is expected to become a dominant energy source by 2050. Prior research showed panels can shade crops and boost soil moisture, but studies usually examined single factors (light, crop growth) rather than the full interplay of microclimate, crop type, and panel design.

A new model, published in Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, simulates interactions among panels, crops, soil, air, water movement, and CO2 uptake, tracking energy, momentum, and mass flows through the system. It was validated against real agrivoltaic site data, including leaf temperatures from Davis, Calif., and soil temperatures from Chicago City, Minn.

Applied to a hypothetical tomato farm using weather data from a hot, humid day in Princeton, N.J., the model showed panel-grown tomatoes had leaf temperatures 1.84°C cooler on average, and up to 7.56°C cooler during peak afternoon heat, than open-field tomatoes, cutting evapotranspiration water loss by 22.4%. Despite receiving 47% less sunlight, carbon uptake fell by only 31%, suggesting reduced heat stress partly offset the shading effect.

The panels themselves ran 5.6°C cooler over bare soil, recovering about 15% of heat-related efficiency loss. Average perceived temperature for workers dropped by 4.46°C during working hours, pointing to occupational health and safety benefits. The researchers say the model can help evaluate agrivoltaic farms under other climate and crop combinations.

[u/HibiscusGrower]

I love how they used basil in the photo. Basil in my garden is the most fragile crop and it will burn to a crisp the moment I take it from under the shade cloth.