
Solar filters emit a red light over tomato plants growing in a research field at UC Davis in 2022. The work further tests the findings of a UC Davis study showing plants in agrivoltaic systems respond best to the red spectrum of light while blue light is better used for energy production.
Andre Daccache/UC Davis)
Different Light Spectra Serve Different Needs for Agrivoltaics
People are increasingly trying to grow both food and clean energy on the same land to help meet the challenges of climate change, drought and a growing global population that just topped 8 billion. This effort includes agrivoltaics, in which crops are grown under the shade of solar panels, ideally with less water.
Now scientists from the University of California, Davis, are investigating how to better harvest the sun — and its optimal light spectrum — to make agrivoltaic systems more efficient in arid agricultural regions like California.
Their study, published in Earth’s Future, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, found that the red part of the light spectrum is more efficient for growing plants, while the blue part of the spectrum is better used for solar production.
A door opener
The study’s results could help guide global interest in agrivoltaics and identify potential applications for those systems.
“This paper is a door opener for all sorts of technological advancements,” said corresponding author Majdi Abou Najm, an associate professor at the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources and a fellow at the UC Davis Institute of the Environment. He conducted the study with first author Matteo Camporese of the University of Padova in Italy, who came to UC Davis as a Fulbright visiting scholar. “Today’s solar panels take all the light and try to make the best of it. But what if a new generation of photovoltaics could take the blue light for clean energy and pass the red light onto the crops, where it is most efficient for photosynthesis?”
For the study, the scientists developed a photosynthesis and transpiration model to account for different light spectra. The model reproduced the response of various plants, including lettuce, basil and strawberry, to different light spectra in controlled lab conditions. A sensitivity analysis suggested the blue part of the spectrum is best filtered out to produce solar energy while the red spectrum can be optimized to grow food.


This work was further tested this past summer on tomato plants at UC Davis agricultural research fields in collaboration with UC Davis Assistant Professor Andre Daccache from the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
Guiding light
In an era of shrinking viable land, understanding how plants respond to different light spectra is a key step toward designing systems that balance sustainable land management with water use and food production, the study noted.
“We cannot feed 2 billion more people in 30 years by being just a little more water-efficient and continuing as we do,” Abou Najm said. “We need something transformative, not incremental. If we treat the sun as a resource, we can work with shade and generate electricity while producing crops underneath. Kilowatt hours become a secondary crop you can harvest.”
Original Article: Harvesting Light to Grow Food and Clean Energy Together
More from: University of California Davis | University of Padova
The Latest Updates from Bing News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Agrivoltaics
- TotalEnergies (TTE) Buys Ombrea, Expands Agrivoltaics Business
TotalEnergies SE TTE announced that it has completed the acquisition of Ombrea, a prime operator in Agrivoltaics space. Ombrea has expertise in combining agriculture and green energy generation. The ...
- Now that's what you call a solar farm... Oil giant TotalEnergies swoops for 'agrivoltaics' pioneer
The impact of PV parks on agriculture is a growing concern at a time when consumers have been facing food price inflation ...
- TotalEnergies SE: France: TotalEnergies Acquires Ombrea and Creates a Center of Expertise for Agrivoltaics
TotalEnergies (Paris:TTE) (LSE:TTE) (NYSE:TTE) has finalized the acquisition of France's agrivoltaics leader Ombrea. Ombrea was founded in 2016. It has built ten sites and studied around fifty crop ...
- France: TotalEnergies Acquires Ombrea and Creates a Center of Expertise for Agrivoltaics
TotalEnergies (Paris:TTE) (LSE:TTE) (NYSE:TTE) has finalized the acquisition of France’s agrivoltaics leader Ombrea.
- SolAgra Contracts with University of Delaware for Agrivoltaics Research
Solar contractor SolAgra has been contracted by the University of Delaware (UDel) for two agrivoltaic solar arrays that will be built at two UDel campuses in Newark and Georgetown to study solar power ...
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Agrivoltaic systems
- SolAgra Contracts with University of Delaware for Agrivoltaics Research
Solar contractor SolAgra has been contracted by the University of Delaware (UDel) for two agrivoltaic solar arrays that will be built at two UDel campuses in Newark and Georgetown to study solar power ...
- Starfield system requirements and minimum specs
If you want to check out the Starfield system requirements then thankfully, I have a break down of minimum and recommended PC specs here. And, good news everyone, the demands aren't big for the ...
- Vertical agrivoltaics to reduce PV curtailment, increase water efficiency
An international research group has analyzed a vertical bifacial agrivoltaics system in a drought-stricken part of Chile. They say that the solar array can improve water efficiency for crop irrigation ...
- French developer builds agrivoltaics facility with irrigation system
TSE has installed a 2.9 MW agrivoltaics plant in northern France with sensors to trigger an irrigation system. The irrigation setup can reportedly achieve significant water savings. The company is ...
- Vattenfall begins construction at 79MW German agrivoltaics project
Vattenfall has started construction at its 79MW Tützpatz agrivoltaics project, which will be Germany's largest agriPV plant.