solarpunk memes

hideshow 4 child comments

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[–] snooggums@piefed.world 10 points 4 months ago

It depends on the crop and how they do the layout, but you can absolutely grow some plants under partial shade from panels.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshpearce/2025/11/15/why-farmers-are-shielding-their-crops-with-solar-panels/

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[–] freebee@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago (1 child)

The sun moves.

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[–] rabidhamster@lemmy.dbzer0.com -3 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

Yeah, and? Most crops need more than just a few hours per day of sunlight. Those panels are HUGE. Way bigger than the shadow we're seeing.

But more to the point, what are they even growing there? It looks like ivy that turns into some indistinct shrub, and then there are flower bushes behind that? Also those panels look like they're about 20-30cm thick when you compare them to the people vaguely "harvesting" the crops. And I'm pretty sure those posts holding them up are basically railroad rails with no support on the back of the panels.

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[–] Tower@lemmy.zip 8 points 4 months ago (1 child)

Agrivoltaics is the term for combining crops and solar

Reverse image search leads to: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/agrivoltaics-of-solar-power-and-farming-are-a-big-success-on-this-boulder-farm/

Attribution is: "Jack’s Solar Farm – Photo by Werner Slocum: NREL"

Searching that name returns this person, listed as a photographer with National Renewable Energy Laboratory: https://www.linkedin.com/in/werner-slocum-7976503

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[–] rabidhamster@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 months ago (1 child)

That's pretty interesting. Makes more sense when posited as a way to grow northern crops in more mid-latitude areas.

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[–] freebee@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 months ago

I think many staple crops are often more prone to drought issues than not getting enough sunlight. Many crops can thrive pretty well with only 4-5 hours of direct sunlight and for the rest of the day just enough general brightness. A bit less direct sunlight can help reduce water usage.

Evolution is going towards semi-transparant solar panels (solar windows) for various use cases, agrivoltaics among them.

It's also not unfeasible to have a herd of sheep or goats roaming around solar panels.

Tho it's true it's a challenge to successfully combine large scale solar and agriculture, I think the future ahead is looking very bright for this combo. Around here (south Germany) it is by now very uncommon to see stables and warehouses without an enormous solar roof, for example...