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https://thecounter.org/agrivoltaics-farmland-solar-panels-clean-energy-crops/>
"On the outskirts of the famed research facility Biosphere 2, away from the
futuristic glass pyramid and tiered trapezoids alive with self-contained
habitats, University of Arizona biogeographer Greg Barron-Gafford oversees a
small outdoor garden. It’s a darker, cooler plot than most, thanks to its
distinctive feature: solar panels. Mounted on 9-foot-tall beams, so lofty a
tractor could pass below them, the solar panels slant against the blue sky of
the high desert, throwing shade on the short rows of basil and onions beneath.
Barron-Gafford has been testing agrivoltaics—a term for land that combines
agriculture and solar farming—for 8 years. He started with a single solar panel
at Biosphere 2, in Oracle, Arizona, a site the University of Arizona has owned
since 2011. More recently, his project has expanded to sites in nearby Tucson
and even a large plot overseen jointly by the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) in Longmont, Colorado."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
