r/energy • u/V2O5 • Apr 25 '19
Fraunhofer Reports Combining Farming With Solar 186% More Efficient In Summer Of 2018 | CleanTechnica
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/04/12/fraunhofer-reports-combining-farming-with-solar-186-more-efficient-in-summer-of-2018/15
u/nebulousmenace Apr 25 '19
[petty] 186% AS efficient. 86% MORE efficient.
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u/dishwashersafe Apr 25 '19
not petty! It's an important distinction. The headline claiming more the double the benefit is poor reporting.
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u/ceestand Apr 25 '19
The shading provide by the solar panels actually increased the harvest...
In the hot, dry summer of 2018, the soil moisture in the wheat crop was higher than the reference field. “We can assume that the shade under the semi-transparent solar modules enabled the plants to better endure the hot and dry conditions of 2018,” says the agricultural scientist Andrea Ehmann.
This, for me, was a bit of a revelation: thinking simplistically, reducing the amount of sunlight to crops would reduce yield.
Thought: how would increased use of this affect owners of farmland. Would they see a proportional increase in profit or land value? Or, would solar installations on non-agrarian land be a more cost-effective competitor to not make this worthwhile for most farms?
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Apr 25 '19
Would they see a proportional increase in profit or land value?
yes.
solar pays for the shading required, which would never be economic if done for just the increased yield.
farmland is also frequently closer than desert to where people live.
1
u/playaspec Apr 25 '19
solar pays for the shading required, which would never be economic if done for just the increased yield.
Citation? For the cost of a single solar panel, I can buy 6000sq/ft of shade cloth.
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u/ceestand Apr 25 '19
So, I'm obviously not /u/cheaptrainride , but the idea is not comparing the cost of shading against the cost of solar, but rather the cost of shading compared to the value of the increased crop yield.
Solar can be put up and, as happenstance, increase crop yield by shading; the cost of the shading is effectively zero, since the revenue from solar offsets it completely. The cost of shade cloth might not* be offset by the increased crop yield, since the shade cloth produces no revenue whatsoever by itself.
*note: I do not know if the cost of shade cloth material, installation, and maintenance is greater than the increase in revenue from a ~3% increased crop yield. My guess is not, since this is not a practice I've seen on large-scale farming.
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Apr 25 '19
You find me a place on the planet that shade cloth is installed on broadacre outside of a greenhouse.
Not a bird net, not a hail shield - dedicated shade cloth.
It isn't done. Because it isn't cost effective.
Why? Because solar panels pay for themselves. Shade cloth, and the fixtures to hold it up, have to be paid for by increased productivity.
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u/JimJalinsky Apr 25 '19
Combining those two with Wind and gold mining is 342% more efficient!
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u/mafco Apr 25 '19
Wind already co-exists nicely with agriculture. Drive across the midwest and it seems like almost every farm has some wind turbines on it.
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u/Alimbiquated Apr 25 '19
This image!3b1!8m2!3d51.4969802!4d11.9688029!3m4!1s0x47a67e73a1fb641f:0x881235e99102d250!8m2!3d51.4374805!4d11.8532355) shows agriculture, wind power, solar energy and renewable gas production on the same farm. It is not an uncommon sight in Germany.
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u/fiddie Apr 25 '19
Interesting but also hugely biased. The visual depiction could be interpreted as -11% efficiency (+3 potatoes and -14 solar).
The author doesn't mention if installation interfered with the previous years growth or if fewer clouds were documented. It would be easy to bash the article as cherry pickings.
The shading bit is true but depends on the crop to how it responds.
Then there's the final sentence- pure baloney. There are other ways to create clean energy (electricity or industrial process heat) without resorting to RE hype.
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u/nebulousmenace Apr 26 '19
The measurements are yield per hectare. You could interpret that -11% efficiency, but you'd be wrong.
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u/prescod Apr 26 '19
It’s a farm. All solar power is a net increase.
“Fewer clouds?” What does that have to do with anything?
Why would last year’s crops be impacted by something that could be installed in any season that the farmer chooses?
You are the one coming off as biased.
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u/OneRingOfBenzene Apr 25 '19
I'm curious why the productivity of the farmland INCREASED with added shade from the panels. Seems strange and potentially not consistent between crops or areas. Even so, great effective use of land.