Hops for beer flourish under solar panels. They’re not the only crop thriving in the shade.::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.
As a farmer and a solar offgridder, I agree. I build my own mounts and would not want to try to build a 20’ high mount that would take 100 km/h winds, which we have seen around here. Not only are the mounts going to go down, now they’re 20’ in the air when they start picking up speed to the ground.
I have bifacials and while I don’t have them out over crop, the grass and trees underneath them in the shade have to be dealt with all summer. I’m pretty sure crop would grow fine but then you’d have to figure out how to harvest it with panels and mounts in the way. Which would be doable, but hardly worth the trouble for the insignificant amount of crop I would gain.
I’ve seen people use sheep to keep the plants around panels down. There’s even people who rent herds to big solar farms. That seems like as much of a win-win as I can think of.
I’ve thought about that. Sheep can be pretty destructive on any shrubs or trees you’re wanting to keep alive though, you’d have to protect each one. Not as bad as goats, though.