Hops for beer flourish under solar panels. and they're not the only crop thriving in the shade.
A farm in Bavaria is covering its hops with solar panels, providing electricity to 250 households and shading the plants from the increasingly scorching summer heat in the process.
https://apnews.com/article/climate-beer-solar-panels-hops-germany-ee3d00a1877837eb85053335e3b68a00Open linkView original on lemmy.world
8 replies
That’s interesting. Guess now you can have farming and solar on the same land?
When the temperatures rise further the effects of the shading can be positive. If the plants don't have the high heat stress the yield could be better in the shade. Combined with the additional income from the solar panels there is a high incentive for farmers to use this technology.
Interesting that we’re seeing wider implementation of renewable technology out in rural areas, like as with all those giant wind turbine farms you can sometimes see. Seems to make more sense out there I guess, they’ve got plenty of wide-open land available for use, it’s just interesting from a political party perspective. Rural areas seem to lean more Conservative/Republican and have thus either outright denied climate change was a thing in the first place, or dragged their feet in wanting to implement “green” energy. When the “Green New Deal” was proposed it was demonized on the Right. Yet rural areas themselves may be one of the major areas that’s actually benefits from renewable energy technology. The cities will be using most of the energy, but the countryside is where a lot of that energy may be produced.
Just to say it. This is Bavaria Germany and the leader of the local conservatives, who are very strong in the state is extremly green. As in green like an ogre.
It works better to sell renewables as energy independence and self reliance out here rather than by the environmental benefits.
I hope we see more renewable energy in rural areas. The number of astroturf groups opposing solar panels and wind turbines in rural areas for "ecological" reasons is kind of horrifying.
As soon as the Bavarians find out about that, Bavaria will be on its way to become CO2 neutral.
Seems especially practical with hops since they're grown on wires from poles already.