Ademola, Oluwaseyi, Ferrara, Bill T. ORCID: 0000-0002-2163-4032 , Hopkins, Richard ORCID: 0000-0003-4935-5825 and Thompson, Elinor ORCID: 0000-0002-6434-9290 (2024) Crop biology agrivoltaics systems' skewed spectrum light. In: Horticultural Science: From Discovery to Application, 26th - 27th Mar, 2024, Reading. (In Press)

PDF (Accepted conference paper) 45970_THOMPSON_Crop_biology_agrivoltaics_systems_skewed_spectrum_light.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (78kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Agrivoltaics allows concurrent production of crops with solar-derived electricity generation. This offers a means of enhancing profit by reducing production costs and can support increased automation by providing remote power supplies at the farm. Novel photovoltaic (PV) materials for agrivoltaics include semi-transparent panels, which are suitable for installing on growth houses, rather than requiring open land, as they permit light and/or tailored wavelengths to be transmitted to crops. This project is evaluating the growth and biochemistry of contrasting crop types grown under tinted, semi-transparent panels, to inform the farmer of positive and negative effects. Root, leafy and soft fruit crops grown under orange-tinted panels showed the altered growth and morphology expected of the red-light shade-response. In some plants, lower vegetative biomass and distinct photosynthesis and nutrient characteristics were associated with orange versus neutral density (grey) and non-shade conditions. Changes in protein content, reported in our previous study of basil and spinach, were again observed under tinted panels. Further biochemical changes, water use and fruit yield suggest that shade from neutral or tinted semitransparent PV panels can be tailored to enhance aspects of crops in covered growth systems, which could even allow leveraging against deleterious leaf biomass effects.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	agrivoltaics; strawberry; tomato; metabolite
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General) S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General) T Technology > T Technology (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > School of Science (SCI)
Last Modified:	22 Feb 2024 11:09
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/45970

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