Research shows how Zonne -Arrays can help grasslands during drought
New research from Colorado State University and Cornell University shows that the presence of solar panels in the grasslands of Colorado can reduce water stress, improve soil moisture mirrors and – in particular during the dry years – planting plant growth by around 20% or more compared to open fields.
The findings were published this week in environmental research letters. The paper outlines the potential benefits and challenges when photovoltaic (PV) Arrays are in grassland eco -systems. The findings are particularly relevant when considering drought in the dry west and the potential for future climate change.
Although solar energy systems are an important source of renewable energy, they reduce the amount of sunlight that is available for plant growth, which can influence these complex ecosystems in a way that reduce the animals in the wild they support, the carbon they store and the amount of food they produce for grazing cattle. The work, based on four years of data from an Agrivoltaic solar facility in Longmont, Colorado, represents the first attempt to test how co-locking solar and grasslands that change dynamics.
The semi-aride grasslands of Colorado often need more water than is available in precipitation in every season.
The team discovered that plants under it and around the solar systems in that area benefited from partial shade and extra water that collects on panels – help with their fight to survive during the hard summer months. They discovered that during a dry year, grass growth on the east side of panels in some cases was up to 90% more productive than the adjacent open site. During wet and normal years this positive grass production response was reduced, but the east side of the panels still saw more grass production than the checking site.
Cornell Postdoctoral Research Associate Matthew Sturchio is an author on the newspaper together with CSU University Distingughed Professor Alan Knapp. Sturchio was previously part of the Knapp team in the Biology department and he is still an affiliated researcher at CSU.
Sturchio said the results show the potential of solar land use syngies in grasslands that support both renewable power generation and ecosystem stability.
“There have been several studies that reported improved plant and water relationships from solar arroys,” he said. “However, this is the first analysis that shows how that pattern is spoken more with increasing drought or dryness as we see in Colorado.
“The most important collection meals here is that although this solar – Array has been designed to maximize energy generation – not to promote favorable environmental conditions for the underneath that grasses are grown – it still offered a more favorable environment during a dry year.”
Sturchio said that profit could increase if panels were designed instead to maximize their benefits, depending on the circumstances. This may be that changing their position to offer shadow when air temperatures rise or configure to leave more light in the most important parts of the growing season.
“With small changes in Array design, configuration and management, we can even realize unused benefits, in particular those with regard to water use,” he said.
The article is part of continuous research by the couple to Agrivoltaics: an approach with double use in which solar energy -infrastructure is designed and placed to also support the live -stock -grazing or pollinator habitats in parallel. These agricultural options do not require irrigation or machines. Due to their heavy dependence on rain to support the growth of plants, this research is needed to understand how the addition of panels changes the environment in general.
Knapp and his lab have been studying grasslands at CSU for decades, in the first place aimed at how they deal with chronic water stress and drought. He said that research in the newspaper focuses on multi -year C3, “cool season” grasses that prefer wetter circumstances. The next step will be to study the most common C4 grasses found in the plains of Colorado. Those plants bloom in warmer conditions with a lot of sunlight.
“Those grasslands are even more water restriction than we used in this study. So we expect that the power of solar panels to reduce water stress can be even greater,” said Knapp.
Sturchio added that solar panels can even offer the opportunity to restore grassland eco -systems by promoting different plant communities. He said that building solar facilities in ecosystems that can benefit from their strategic placement is an obvious win-win.
“We assume that grassland recovery in dry and semi-arid regions could not only benefit from the favorable conditions in solar arrays, but also from the heterogeneity of the environment created by panels,” he said. “We are pleased to test the functional substantiation of that idea on the newly constructed shortgrass Ecovoltaic research facility in Nunn, Colorado, very soon.”
Research report:Proof of photovoltaic dryness limitation in semi-aride grasslands
