Growing Chinese herbal medicine under photovoltaic solar panels

Can solar photovoltaics be co-located with vegetation?

Co-locating solar photovoltaics with vegetation could provide a sustainable solution to meeting growing food and energy demands. However, studies quantifying multiple co-benefits resulting from maintaining vegetation at utility-scale solar power plants are limited.

Do solar photovoltaic panels promote vegetation recovery?

Liu Y, Zhang R, Huang Z, Cheng Z, López-Vicente M, Ma X, et al. Solar photovoltaic panels significantly promote vegetation recovery by modifying the soil surface microhabitats in an arid sandy ecosystem. Land Degrad Dev. 2019;30:2177–86. Lovich JE, Ennen JR. Wildlife Conservation and Solar Energy Development in the Desert Southwest.

Can native flora be treated with PV panels?

Native flora was planted in 2018 on the intact soil in a portion of the facility following the construction. To separate the effects of vegetation and PV panels, three treatments were established in the study area.

How do solar panels affect plant and pollinator communities?

They linked these effects on plant and pollinator communities to alterations of microclimatic conditions under PV panels such as changes in soil temperature, solar radiation, or soil moisture—which can be directly related to nectar production by plants.

Could agrivoltaic farming be a solution?

Agrivoltaic farming could be a solution to not just one but both of these problems. It uses the shaded space underneath solar panels to grow crops. This increases land-use efficiency, as it lets solar farms and agriculture share ground, rather than making them compete against one another.

Does shading reduce soil temperature in veg and bare PV treatments?

The fact that the soil temperatures were lower in the veg PV and the bare PV treatments than they were in the control site during the growing season (Figure 2b) implies that the shading from the PV arrays may cool the underlying soil-vegetation.