Transforming Farms and Food Production With Solar Panels Agrivoltaics putting solar panels on farmland lead to astonishing productivity gains and improved energy efficiency. Except when they don’t. Chris Malloy, The Counter | April 11, 2021 | Features
On the outskirts of the famed research facility Biosphere 2, away from the futuristic glass pyramid and tiered trapezoids alive with self-contained habitats, University of Arizona biogeographer Greg Barron-Gafford oversees a small outdoor garden. It’s a darker, cooler plot than most, thanks to its distinctive feature: solar panels. Mounted on 9-foot-tall beams, so lofty a tractor could pass below them, the solar panels slant against the blue sky of the high desert, throwing shade on the short rows of basil and onions beneath.