Sustainable Co-Production of Food and Solar Power to Relax Land-Use Constraints

Journal Article: Sustainable Co-Production of Food and Solar Power to Relax Land-Use Constraints

Abstract

Renewable energy could often be land constrained by the diffuse nature of renewable resources. To relax land constraints, we propose the concept of ‘aglectric’ farming, where agricultural land will be sustainably shared for food and energy co-production. While wind turbines on agricultural land are already put into practice, solar power production on agricultural land is still under research. Here, we propose photovoltaic systems that are suitable for installation on agricultural land. Adjusting the intensity, spectral distribution and duration of shading allows innovative photovoltaic systems to achieve significant power generation without potentially diminishing agricultural output. The feasibility of solar aglectric farms has been proven through shadow modelling. The proposed solar aglectric farms—used alone or in combination with regular solar parks or wind plants—could be a solution for a sustainable renewable economy that supports the ‘full Earth’ of over 10 billion people.

Contains a model

Contains novel data

Topics

Plant Science

Plant productivity and yields

Market Assessments

Technical potential

PV Technologies

Impact on energy generation

Impact Assessments

Environmental/climate LCA
Food-water-energy Nexus
Land Impact/LER

Authors: C.K. Miskin, Y.Li, A. Perna, R.G. Ellis, E.K. Grubbs, P. Bermel and R. Agrawal

Published Journal

: Nature Sustainability, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0388-x
Online: Internet link for Sustainable Co-Production of Food and Solar Power to Relax Land-Use Constraints

Citation

C.K. Miskin, Y.Li, A. Perna, R.G. Ellis, E.K. Grubbs, P. Bermel, R. Agrawal. 2019. Sustainable Co-Production of Food and Solar Power to Relax Land-Use Constraints. Nature Sustainability. 2:972–980.