A farm in Bavaria is covering its hops with solar panels, providing electricity to 250 households and shading the plants from the increasingly scorching summer heat in the process.

  • really@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    1 year ago

    That’s interesting. Guess now you can have farming and solar on the same land?

    • colourednumbers@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      When the temperatures rise further the effects of the shading can be positive. If the plants don’t have the high heat stress the yield could be better in the shade. Combined with the additional income from the solar panels there is a high incentive for farmers to use this technology.

      • paddirn@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Interesting that we’re seeing wider implementation of renewable technology out in rural areas, like as with all those giant wind turbine farms you can sometimes see. Seems to make more sense out there I guess, they’ve got plenty of wide-open land available for use, it’s just interesting from a political party perspective. Rural areas seem to lean more Conservative/Republican and have thus either outright denied climate change was a thing in the first place, or dragged their feet in wanting to implement “green” energy. When the “Green New Deal” was proposed it was demonized on the Right. Yet rural areas themselves may be one of the major areas that’s actually benefits from renewable energy technology. The cities will be using most of the energy, but the countryside is where a lot of that energy may be produced.

  • amelore@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Seems especially practical with hops since they’re grown on wires from poles already.