Agrivoltaics

[PhilSL]

Is it be viable in/for the UK?

 

[PhilSL]

*Will it be viable - not “Is it be viable”

 

[nonemouse]

I started to watch it but had to stop as he made more and more sweeping statements which are based on misleading and selective statistics, so I’m out

 

[Wisconsonian]

I'm guessing no. Not nearly as viable as in lower latitudes. I'm here in the frigid Northern US, where we have more extreme weather than the UK, but at the latitude of the South of France. If I remember right, parts of the UK are the same latitude as Hudson's Bay? I think the comment that Australia would benefit more is probably completely true.

I don't blame the guy for sweeping statements and selective statistics, it's not a paper, just a promo piece for a concept that too many people haven't heard of. I had no idea there was so much use going back to 2015 even.

The concept is simple enough, you wouldn't plant grain so that each plant had full access to the sunlight. Here the maize planting population is one of the biggest production variables, even if it's understood more as maximizing the light, rather than benefiting the plant by avoiding overexposure to sun. I could easily see large parts of the American Southwest that would benefit from the reduced water use, including into Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. They currently suffer in corn/maize production with not having enough moisture to support a full stand and the vulnerability of maize to dry, heat and wind. Not sure it would ever make sense for anything other than sheep grazing though, or short autonomous robots?

 

[renewablejohn]

Of course its viable in the UK. Some of us have been growing crops under shade netting to achive better crops for over a decade. You have been able to specify solar glass on greenhouses since 2015.