Agrivoltaics

French start-up Solar Cloth has secured a patent for a PV shade screen for solar greenhouses.

Researchers have matched the tinting of semi-transparent PV modules with the bandwidth of light that plants absorb for photosynthesis. A promising trial with basil and spinach has opened up economic opportunities for farmers.

Swiss startup Insolight has raised €4.6 million to bring its concentrating PV module technology to commercial production. The panels have a claimed efficiency of 30% and power output of 160 W. Originally conceived for rootop solar, the product is now being recommended as an interesting option for agrivoltaic projects.

BayWa r.e. and GroenLeven have designed special monocrytalline solar panels for five pilot agrivoltaic projects they are deploying in the Netherlands. They are testing weather-resistant 260 W glass-glass panels with different transparency levels.

State utility SA Water is partnering with an environmental organization to ‘re-vegetate’ almost a ton of native seedlings under a large scale solar arrays. Beneath the ground-mounted PV projects, native vegetation should return to the formerly agricultural land, and the resulting scrub is expected to protect panels from soiling.

The parent of Italian tracker business Convert has entered the Brazilian solar market with plans for agri-business products and other systems.

U.S. researchers have created a new model to assess the overlap between solar potential and underlying land use. The areas with the largest potential are the western United States, southern Africa, and the Middle East. The researchers concluded that croplands, grasslands, and wetlands are the top three land classes for PV projects linked to agricultural activities, while barren terrain, traditionally prioritized for solar PV system installation, ranked fifth.

The French government has selected seven agrivoltaic projects with a total generation capacity of 12 MW in its latest tender for innovative PV technology.

Plus, Italian developers continue to dig deep for their health service, the pandemic piles on problems for a debt-saddled Chinese company and analysts consider whether there will be any money left for a green economic recovery after the dust settles.

Baofeng Energy appears to be switching its focus to hydrogen production and says its new project will be powered by two 100 MW solar plants and will start producing 160 million cubic meters of hydrogen annually from next year.