Pam here….the spacing of panels allows for the sunlight to be managed over the crop. Broccoli, cabbage, cilantro, and other ‘cold’ or ‘Cole’ crops bolt or suffer in high heat or too much sun. In the south where it really gets hot, tomatoes and others crops would benefit from the moving shade of sun going over the top. So excited about this!!
Just love how the farmer can have an additional stream of income. The bifacial panels getting the reflective light is especially a great idea for when it's winter and the farmers income is reduced or nonexistent. Adding a battery station could convert each farm into neighborhood Peaker plants!
the farmers need to see this!! Have you guys seen "common ground" I have an it's amazing! we need more farmers to CARE not just keep buying pesticides!! thank you so much for this interview!!
Agrivoltaic is awesome. Jack, you should follow up and ask those monopolistic utilities why they are dragging their feet. If it would be power deployment based on utility need, they could just do an expedited approval for projects with batteries. Something does not ad up.
This is not gonna get as much eyeballs compare to your other works on YTube, but real appreciate y'all for covering this, it's awesome farming tech advancement
Recently they discovered you get more power in the same space by having solar panels vertical double sided, this would allow less shade for growing plants.
It would however mean longer shadows, covering more crop, as opposed to more shadow over less crop. I'd like to see the figures, basically. How much more crop Vs how much more power output overall Vs how much more capital investment for twice as many panels?
First double-sided does not mean twice as many panels. Second the vertical has to be East-West facing so that could limit the viability on certain Farms
The combination of solar and irrigation has real potential. The solar can run the irrigation, the irrigation can be mounted on the solar system and the shading can reduce the evaporation. Win win win. The Coachella valley comes to mind for this agrivoltaics idea. Having power-lines and customers close by in arid climates where too much sun is a problem seems like a great business plan. We used to finance tile drainage with tile loans that would improve the drainage and value of the land. These loans were government issued on the property and paid off over time with the increased production. Farmers could use this historical financing tool to add agrivoltaics to existing operations. Diversification of the land without reducing production. Lets get on it, farmers are ever the creative bunch and once they see solar paying the bills it will be a done deal.
When I had a trampoline in our yard (in the Pacific Northwest) the grass grew like crazy under the trampoline. I had to keep moving it to new areas to handle the extra growth. I imagine that the same would be true under this system.
21:10 i think the main reason the state implemented a 10' height minimum because if there was no minimum some installers might use normal ground mount equipment and just graze sheep under the panels. It seems that most jurisdictions want to avoid situations where the solar panels might allow or push the farmers to decrease the horticultural intensity of their farming operations, ie taking vegetable farming ground, slapping solar on it then down shifting that to pasture or forage land. That said, 10' might not necessarily be the best limit. 8' seems pretty reasonable. I still think that the ground out here in ca that grows cotton and tomatoes on rotation could be ideal for deploying agrivoltaics at scale.
10' might look like overkill height for a field of broccoli, but as someone from Illinois farm country, I instantly noticed that the 10' was high enough to grow even very tall crops like corn or sunflowers. All the Community Solar projects that I'm aware of around here, were built with just the sort of low "normal ground mount equipment" that you mention. Farmers in this area tend to rotate Corn and soy beans, and depend on normal rainfall as the water source. Some of them see the Solar farms as something that only takes farmland out of production, but a set up like this would not do that.
White plastic combined with convex mirrors to refract long wave radiation possibly include infared led black lights biracial photovoltaic modules are AMAZING TECHNOLOGY
Farmer Joe, you were great brother! Thanks for being honest and genuine. And, thanks for sharing. I'm seriously considering Agrivoltaics. Maybe I'll swing over to Mass. and check our your operation.
Nice work & explanations Joe, Jake, & Zac+ !🌅 I've been trying to promote multi-use cash flow using PV for most Farmers. It's actually an old concept, called 'Silva-Pasture' e.g. Pecan trees + livestock, which in general provide summer shade, heavy rain erosion control & Higher yields/ac.! Food is Energy...now Food+ direct Energy so more income for struggling farmers🌻🌻
Nice to see actual agrivoltaics up close, and hear from the farmer. I think a major obstacle is the bureaucracy. In the EU I don't think the taxonomy can handle an area that both is agricultural farmland and also solar production, so farmers can't get economic benefits. Hopefully this will eventually change.
@@HepCatJack only one disruption at a time 😀 Seriusly, it would be hard to grow broccoli from yeast. Secondly, even yeast based production needs carbohydrates to grow, and the best way to make that is still using traditional farming.
Bats could potentially hang upside down beneath the solar panels during the day and hunt insects at night. The crops would need to be something other than broccoli because it's said that insects don't like eating it.
@@vinumcopia9850 presumably the same process which cleans the droppings of field rats, mice, possums, raccoons, groundhogs. But given the corona virus risk, perhaps having ducks do the job may be a better choice.
great video, thank you! I'm interested to know more about the construction specs. For example: what size I-beam did you use (20' x ?) Also... couldn't make it out, but you said that for every foot above ground it's one foot below ground, correct?
Depend on plants that requiring number hours of sun. I used your code to buy Tesla M3... Please use my reserve link for APTERA if any one buy, really appreciated... great video guys. I subscribed n follwedthey can add earth worms to soil to make it better soil...
This looks pretty exciting. How long does it take to make a return on the investment (for that area)? And, how long will those metal posts really last in the ground?
We did have a tornado pass through western mass in 2011 - Hyperion's arrays withstood the sustained high winds...although this weather is certainly an outlier in our region.
sometimes shade can help certain crops and the people working it........hold up, just got to the bureaucracy, spoiled the vibe. man, i swear, sometimes????
