BURST
“We’re sitting on a golden opportunity to marry photo voltaic technology — in other words, solar panes — with agriculture in B.C.”, says Omri Haiven, a researcher at the Clean Energy Research Group at Simon Fraser University. Haiven goes on to say, “We have two perfect locations in B.C. to grow food and produce energy, one on top of the other.”
Haiven is referring to agri-voltaics, the combination of solar energy generation with agricultural practices. This method creates high land-use efficiency, enabling farmers to harvest crops and generate solar electricity simultaneously on the same plot of land, rather than treating the two as competing interests. If fact says, Haiven, the solar panels aid the plants in increased yields and protection from threats.
Haiven says, “Plants often reach a saturation point for sunlight when exposed to long periods of intense sunlight, and they use a significant amount of the energy from the sun to protect themselves from the sun.“ By adding photovoltaic structures over the fields, farmers can avoid stressing the crops while maintaining or even increasing harvest yields.”
I invited Omri Haiven of the Clean Energy Research Group to join me for a Conversation That Matters about the potential agri-voltaics offers to farmers.
Learn more about our guest’s career at careersthatmatter.ca
Join us May 26 at 5 p.m. for Conversations Live, on unleashing B.C.’s economy.