DETROIT – Researchers studying whether food crops and a solar array could share the same land were shocked to discover a mutually beneficial relationship between the plants and panels,
The experiment took place in Houston, Alaska, about one hour outside Anchorage. Houston is home to Alaska’s largest solar array.
Using funding from the Department of Energy, the researchers tested whether food crops could grow successfully in the spaces between solar panels.
“The purpose is to study how food and energy can be produced together in a place where food and energy cost a lot of money,” said Glenna Gannon of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, the lead researcher on the project, per the Times. “Self-sufficiency is really important in Alaska,” the The New York Times reported.
To their surprise, the researchers’ solar array farm was not only a success in terms of growing large quantities of food like kale, spinach, and potatoes. They also found that plants located closer to the solar panels actually grew better than those placed farther away.
The difference in the quality of the crops was so dramatic that it was visible to the naked eye.
“The color difference in the spinach is fascinating,” said Jessie Young-Robertson, a professor at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who analyzed the crops, according to the Times. Young-Robertson noted that the spinach grown closer to the solar panels was a much darker color of green.
As to why the solar panels might have helped plants grow better, the researchers had a couple of hypotheses. First, in the extra-long days of the Alaskan summer, the plants located closer to the panels received more hours in the shade. Having some time in the shade can actually help plants grow better.
“The plants that are closer to the panels are more protected,” said Gannon, according to the Times. “Ones farther away from the solar panels get more solar stress.”
Second, the solar panels acted as collectors of water, providing nearby plants with extra hydration.
Despite the promising results, the scientists emphasized that, to date, their data only has covered a single year. More research would be required to verify their findings.
“There is a lot of year-to-year variability,” Gannon said, per the Times. “Typically, you want an average of three years.
Still, the research so far has strongly suggested that solar panels and crops can coexist in close proximity, a potential benefit to areas with limited available land or where, like Alaska, food and energy are in relatively short supply. Further, being able to grow crops could make large-scale solar arrays more profitable for their owners.
“It’s an income stream because farmers lease the land,” explained Chris Pike, a former research engineer, according to the Times. “It also means that solar producers don’t have to remove the vegetation that grows up between rows of solar panels, and that can reduce costs.”
Farming on the same land as large-scale solar arrays not only has the potential to provide food and energy to local communities, but also to help increase supply and keep costs down. It also could make owning and operating a solar array more profitable, providing an economic incentive to build more of them.