Agrovoltaics

 A team of French scientists lead by Christophe Dupraz were the first to use term agrivoltaic. 

It basically means when solar panels and food crops are combined on the same land to maximize the land use.  It’s an idea which could bring food producing to the next level. Their research field in Montpellier, France, indicated that agrivoltaic systems may be indeed very efficient: the increase of global land productivity can be from 35 to 73 percent!

Fraunhofer Institute’s For Solar Energy Systems researchers carried out the study about the same topic. Their goal was to find out how solar radiation and food crops can be used and ended up with synergic solution.

The examination took place near Lake Constance which borders Switzerland, Germany and Austria. For one year the pilot project used 720 bi-facial solar modules which covered around 1/3 of a hectare. Researches decided to mount the panels high enough, so crops receive almost the same amount of sunlight as if they grow naturally. This also helps as proper farming technique could be used.

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