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I really don't get the hype around Agrivoltaics at all. It all kind of pivots of the idea that land for Photovoltaics is scarce. Maybe it is in the UK but in th

I really don't get the hype around Agrivoltaics at all. It all kind of pivots of the idea that land for Photovoltaics is scarce. Maybe it is in the UK but in the vast majority of the world this is a non sequitur. Cover the crop in shade cloth, and mount the panels on the ground / roof structures nearby. No need to over complicate things.

aa-jv 2y ago
Do you have your own personal garden? I'm excited about it because its a combination of many things I truly enjoy doing and get a lot of pleasure from - harvesting energy, growing food, seeing life in equilibrium. The integrated growth-stands with full-spectrum solar -> plant -> fish -> soil process is really, really appealing. Healthier food, energy harvested in neat ways. If I can get carrots and radishes and salads from the same device that charges my cell phone in the next year or so, I'll be a happier human for sure.
- grumpy-de-sre 2y ago
  > Do you have your own personal garden? Yes, every season I grow ~20kg of vegetables on a 15m^2 balcony (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, celery, various herbs). They are grown vertically on a trellis system, using 11 liter hydroponic "bato" buckets and recycled/reused perlite (sterilized). Nothing fancy. The main energy input is the chemical fertilizer. Electricity to run pumps/valves etc is very minimal and probably amounts to 5-6 KWh over the season. I use synthetic fertilizers but avoid insecticides/fungicides, instead opting to use biocontrols (shout out to Koppert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFPkAQUfYvo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFPkAQUfYvo). The future of agriculture (excluding cereal crops, which I dream might be replaced by synthetic starches one day) probably looks something similar to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_pR_HihCVo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_pR_HihCVo
  - barrenko 2y ago
    Now this is solarpunk.
closewith 2y ago
> Maybe it is in the UK but in the vast majority of the world this is a non sequitur. Land near energy demand is scarce almost everywhere. This kind of local generation is ideal and both reduces transmission losses and makes the grid/society more resilient.
- grumpy-de-sre 2y ago
  Rooftop photovoltaic can (and will) cover local needs. Bigger issue is local energy storage (eg. community batteries).
  - closewith 2y ago
    This is absurd. There's no limit to energy needs - they only grow.
    - IndrekR 2y ago
      Sure there are reasonable limits. Where, is another matter. For example, I can not imagine a reasonable use-case for 1MW power-line per single apartment.
      - detourdog 2y ago
        I was required to wire each unit with 150kW panel. The original 1931 service was 240 x 200 Amps which I upgraded to 240 x 800 Amps in 2018. I posted the best image I could of the original 1931 schematic which has 9 circuits for 5,000 sqft school. It's the first image in this slide show. https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B2dGIcgc2GugpW3 https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B2dGIcgc2GugpW3
        IndrekR 2y ago
        Interesting. That is like 52 sqm per unit, which is 2.9 kW/sqm — three times higher power density than the solar irradiance on earth surface. If this is used at full power, how are the rooms cooled? (most energy gets converted to heat in typical use-cases)

aa-jv 2y ago

Do you have your own personal garden? I'm excited about it because its a combination of many things I truly enjoy doing and get a lot of pleasure from - harvesting energy, growing food, seeing life in equilibrium. The integrated growth-stands with full-spectrum solar -> plant -> fish -> soil process is really, really appealing. Healthier food, energy harvested in neat ways. If I can get carrots and radishes and salads from the same device that charges my cell phone in the next year or so, I'll be a happier human for sure.

grumpy-de-sre 2y ago
> Do you have your own personal garden? Yes, every season I grow ~20kg of vegetables on a 15m^2 balcony (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, celery, various herbs). They are grown vertically on a trellis system, using 11 liter hydroponic "bato" buckets and recycled/reused perlite (sterilized). Nothing fancy. The main energy input is the chemical fertilizer. Electricity to run pumps/valves etc is very minimal and probably amounts to 5-6 KWh over the season. I use synthetic fertilizers but avoid insecticides/fungicides, instead opting to use biocontrols (shout out to Koppert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFPkAQUfYvo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFPkAQUfYvo). The future of agriculture (excluding cereal crops, which I dream might be replaced by synthetic starches one day) probably looks something similar to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_pR_HihCVo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_pR_HihCVo
- barrenko 2y ago
  Now this is solarpunk.

closewith 2y ago

> Maybe it is in the UK but in the vast majority of the world this is a non sequitur. Land near energy demand is scarce almost everywhere. This kind of local generation is ideal and both reduces transmission losses and makes the grid/society more resilient.

grumpy-de-sre 2y ago
Rooftop photovoltaic can (and will) cover local needs. Bigger issue is local energy storage (eg. community batteries).
- closewith 2y ago
  This is absurd. There's no limit to energy needs - they only grow.
  - IndrekR 2y ago
    Sure there are reasonable limits. Where, is another matter. For example, I can not imagine a reasonable use-case for 1MW power-line per single apartment.
    - detourdog 2y ago
      I was required to wire each unit with 150kW panel. The original 1931 service was 240 x 200 Amps which I upgraded to 240 x 800 Amps in 2018. I posted the best image I could of the original 1931 schematic which has 9 circuits for 5,000 sqft school. It's the first image in this slide show. https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B2dGIcgc2GugpW3 https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B2dGIcgc2GugpW3
      - IndrekR 2y ago
        Interesting. That is like 52 sqm per unit, which is 2.9 kW/sqm — three times higher power density than the solar irradiance on earth surface. If this is used at full power, how are the rooms cooled? (most energy gets converted to heat in typical use-cases)