Airborn Solar Panels

“Liftoff, we have a liftoff!”. Europe, one of those territories eagerly absorbing photo-voltaic energy generation, has a little bit of a space problem, being one of the most densely-populated areas in the world. A field covered with solar panels unfortunately can’t be used for agriculture. Or can it? The Fraunhofer Institute has found out that it is very well possible to use land for both agriculture and energy generation by stacking both functionalities.

Upshot agricultural yield: corn slightly negative, but grass and shadow-loving potatoes make no difference.

Influence partly shadowing on different crops

[wikipedia.com] – Agrivoltaic
[ise.fraunhofer.de] – Agrophotovoltaics Goes Global: from Chile to Vietnam
[biomlandconf.files.wordpress.com] – 20 slides Fraunhofer Institute
[cleantechnica.com] – Fraunhofer Experiments In Chile And Vietnam Prove Value Of Agrophotovoltaic Farming
[cleantechnica.com] – Combining Solar Panels With Agriculture Makes Land More Productive

The Forgotten Green Energy Champion Chile

Today Chile gets 45% of its electricity from renewable sources and intends to increase this to 90% by 2050… or earlier.

[wikipedia.org] – Renewable energy in Chile
[nytimes.com] – Chile’s Energy Transformation Powered by Wind, Sun and Volcanoes
[independent.co.uk] – “Chile’s electricity should be 100% renewable by 2040”
[collective-evolution.com] – The ‘Uber of Recycling’ Igniting Green Revolution in Chile

Lithium Mining

[wikipedia.org] – Lithium