Solar panels could cool down farms—and farmworkers

Anthropocene Magazine reports on a new modeling study that suggests agrivoltaics—the practice of combining solar panels with farmland—can cool not just crops but also the people who tend them. Using data from tomato farms and a typical hot New Jersey summer day, the model found that shaded tomato leaves would be up to seven point five six degrees Celsius cooler during peak heat, and that the cooling effect would reduce water loss from leaves by more than forty percent. That same evapotranspiration cooling would also chill the solar panels themselves by five point six degrees Celsius, offsetting their efficiency decline by fifteen percent. Most notably, the model showed that farmworkers would experience a four point four six degree Celsius drop in perceived temperature, bringing it from thirty-nine to around thirty-five degrees Celsius. The researchers say that with location-specific data, this model could help design future hybrid farm-energy landscapes to benefit both food production and people.

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