Fall 2014
In collaboration with John Selker, the Rabbit Field solar array was instrumented to measure the impact that solar panels have on the power production, micro-climatology and local grass growth. Our hypothesis is that in water limited environments the solar panels serve to reduce plant available radiation which serves to reduce evaporation. This allows the grass to stay active for longer periods of the growing season providing the sheep with preferable forage. Also assessing the solar power efficiency that may be affected by local temperature and wind speed.
Our finding were published in November 2018. This project inspired us to ask more questions about agrivoltaic systems, which you can learn more about here!