UArizona Partners on $10M USDA Grant to Expand Research on Growing Crops Under Solar Panels arizona.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from arizona.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The director of Tucson Unified School District's Community and School Garden Program joined advocates from around the country Wednesday at a House Rules Committee roundtable on the ways that schools can help fight childhood hunger.
Kevin Choi/University of Arizona
Construction of a rooftop garden and solar panels atop the University of Arizona s Environment and Natural Resources 2, or ENR2, building is complete, and the research phase of the ENR2 Rooftop PV+ Project can now begin.
The method of growing crops under solar panels to increase the efficiency of both is called agrivoltaics – a semantic mashup of agriculture and photovoltaics. When any other kind of plant is used, such as native species instead of crops, the system is called photovoltaic-plus, or PV+.
ENR2 is already a LEED Platinum-certified building, the highest rating in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating program. The Rooftop PV+ Project is a way to demonstrate sustainability in the desert while also providing unique research and learning opportunities for the UArizona community.