{"id":336,"date":"2021-03-18T12:21:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T12:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pscsolaruk.com\/blog\/?p=336"},"modified":"2021-03-18T12:21:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T12:21:49","slug":"study-finds-plants-would-grow-well-in-solar-cell-greenhouses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pscsolaruk.com\/blog\/study-finds-plants-would-grow-well-in-solar-cell-greenhouses\/","title":{"rendered":"Study finds plants would grow well in solar cell greenhouses"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent study shows that lettuce can be grown in greenhouses that filter out wavelengths of light used to generate solar<\/a> power, demonstrating the feasibility of using see-through solar panels in greenhouses to generate electricity.<\/p>

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“We were a little surprised\u2014there was no real reduction in\u00a0plant growth<\/a>\u00a0or health,” says Heike Sederoff, co-corresponding author of the study and a professor of plant biology at North Carolina State University. “It means the idea of integrating\u00a0transparent solar cells<\/a>\u00a0into greenhouses can be done.”<\/p>\n

Because\u00a0plants<\/a>\u00a0do not use all of the\u00a0wavelengths of light<\/a>\u00a0for photosynthesis, researchers have explored the idea of creating semi-transparent organic solar cells that primarily absorb wavelengths of\u00a0light<\/a>\u00a0that plants don’t rely on, and incorporating those solar cells into greenhouses. Earlier work from NC State focused on how much energy solar-powered greenhouses could produce. Depending on the design of the\u00a0greenhouse<\/a>, and where it is located, solar cells could make many greenhouses energy neutral\u2014or even allow them to generate more power than they use.<\/p>

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But, until now, it wasn’t clear how these semi-transparent\u00a0solar panels<\/a>\u00a0might affect greenhouse crops.<\/p>\n

To address the issue, researchers grew crops of red leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa) in greenhouse chambers for 30 days\u2014from seed to full maturity. The\u00a0growing conditions<\/a>, from temperature and water to fertilizer and CO2<\/sub>\u00a0concentration, were all constant\u2014except for light.<\/p>

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A control group of lettuces was exposed to the full spectrum of white light. The rest of the lettuces were dived into three experimental groups. Each of those groups was exposed to light through different types of filters that absorbed wavelengths of light equivalent to what different types of semi-transparent solar cells would absorb.<\/p>\n

“The total amount of light incident on the filters was the same, but the color composition of that light was different for each of the experimental groups,” says Harald Ade, co-corresponding author of the study and the Goodnight Innovation Distinguished Professor of Physics at NC State.<\/p>

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