Envirothon team finds unique solution regarding solar

JAY — One of the Envirothon teams at Spruce Mountain High School in Jay has found a different, unique solution to the complex issue of using prime agricultural land for solar energy production.

Envirothon is an international program for high school students interested in learning more about natural resources and the environment. The current issue part of the program this year focuses on balancing agricultural and solar energy production.

Senior Megan Craig, who is part of a team with juniors Bluebell Chen, Sarah Hawkins and Loreli Ferrar has found a unique solution to the solar panel/agriculture problem, advisor Rob Taylor told the Livermore Falls Advertiser on April 7. In an email Craig later supplied more information on what she had found.

“The new solar option that I researched and am planning to use for my team’s current issue presentation is agrivoltaics which is one of four main kinds of dual-use solar energies, and is the process of having both farming and a renewable energy source on the same plot of land,” she wrote. “The solar panels that we intend to use are made of silicone, which is a naturally occurring substance.”

The panels are not harmful to soils they are stationed on, will not poison the terrain and will be on stilts which keeps them off the ground, Craig noted. “This helps protect the soils they’re stationed on,” she wrote. “Not only do these stilts prevent soil erosion, compaction, and runoff issues, but we will not be digging up soil to run wires. Instead they will extend across the pillars. Keeping wires high above ground also gives us the advantage of isolating them from wildlife. No fauna should be harmed in any way by chewing on them.”

Those advantages are not even close to the coolest part, Craig stressed. “These solar panels have two very unique qualities,” she noted. “Firstly they’re transparent. Secondly they have a magenta hue.”

Being transparent relates to the stilts, Craig wrote. “Keeping the solar panels high off of the ground, and transparent, allows us to grow crops underneath them,” she noted. “This way we don’t have to sacrifice farmland. Basically, with standard solar panel systems, you could have half of your fields dedicated to farming and the other half to solar. With this system dedicate it all to both.”

The system allows farmers to have space to grow more crops and collect more solar energy than if they split their fields in half, Craig noted. “Not only that, but statistically, growing crops under these panels has an advantage,” she wrote. “They keep temperatures underneath cooler by day and warmer by night keeping temps regulated, which also elongates growing seasons.”

The magenta hue is the best and coolest part of this technology, Craig stressed. “We see plants as green because they do not absorb green light wavelengths, simply they do not need it to grow,” she noted. “So when white light shines on plants – white light being the presence of all color wavelengths – green bounces off. These magenta panels absorb green light wavelengths, and allow red light to shine through to the plants underneath. The plants are able to absorb the red light being produced from the panel, and really thrive.

“Some studies have actually shown plants grow 20% stronger and healthier under magenta panels. Plus plants grown underneath them on average require less water than normal, saving another valuable resource. The actual solar panel is able to absorb the energy from the green light and store it.”

What is even cooler, Craig wrote, is this system has the ability to work for 24 hours straight, so solar panels will no longer work just during the day. “Both the sun and moon – on bright nights – produce white light allowing panels to collect and store solar energy 24/7,” she noted.

Choosing between farmland and renewables isn’t needed with these panels, Craig indicated. “That’s revolutionary, especially since we’re predicted to have a massive population increase in the years to come,” she noted. “Food accessibility is already a problem. This technology is a big step towards fixing that.”

Craig learned about the magenta panels from her dad. “He is a big nerd, and sometimes it feels like he knows everything,” she noted. “One day he was casually talking about the panels with my sister and I. I do not know how he heard about them, but I know he was reading about them just for fun. Then one day our current issue was introduced and everything just clicked into place very quickly.”

Magenta panels are being used all over, Craig wrote. “I would say that they are most prominent at the University of California, Santa Cruz,” she noted. “But the University of Vermont is a closer example of the successes of transparent solar panels. And some places in Canada are using the technology too.”

Prices of silicon-based photovoltaic solar panels [which is what these are] have severely dropped since 2010, Craig noted. Plus their color allows them to produce electricity even more proficiently, she wrote.

Craig noted she was told to get involved with Envirothon. “It is a running joke within our school about Mr. Taylor,” she wrote. “Putting it simply, he doesn’t allow people to say no to him. One day my freshman year he asked me in the hallway to join his Envirothon club, which at the time I didn’t even know existed. I was a scared 14 year-old, so of course I said yes, then avoided him like the plague. He kept tracking me down, until I attended my very first meeting, and then a field trip immediately after. After that, I wasn’t allowed to leave, not like I wanted to anyway. I love the club, everyone within it, and both of our advisors. They have made the past four years great ones.”

A challenge with Envirothon is it involves “having a surplus of information being hurtled at you all at once,” Craig noted. “It’s really hard to grasp everything that’s being said, you have to put a lot of effort in outside of meetings to understand it. But the work that you put in is what’s most rewarding. Or really, finally understanding something after all that work.”