Greenhouses enable the production of food crops and ornamental plants year-round outside of their natural environment and growth zones. While other solar-powered greenhouses do improve the sustainability of food production, they require either additional land in the form of solar farms or a reduction in yield in the case of opaque rooftop solar cells. Fully enclosed container farms are an alternative to greenhouse cultivation with a lower cost for climate control, but they suffer from high energy costs for artificial lighting that prevent their economic viability for crops other than microgreens or lettuce. To utilize natural sunlight for both crop growth and electricity, wavelength-selective semi-transparent organic solar cells can be integrated into the structure of the greenhouse itself. By adding solar panels to the greenhouse roof, the cost of crop production can be kept close to the cost of conventional and photovoltaic-adjacent greenhouse systems in favorable climates without requiring additional land
Semi-transparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs) offer new agrivoltaic opportunities to meet the growing demands for sustainable food production. The tailored absorption/transmission spectrum of ST-OSCs not only impacts the power generated but also aspects of crop growth, development, and responses to the biotic and abiotic environments. The general relationships between these variables are unknown. Here, we grow red oak leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa), a traditional greenhouse crop, under three different ST-OSC filters and observe little overall differences in productivity in response to the altered light exposure.
In contrast, several key traits involving nutrient content and nitrogen utilization, as well as a plant defense against herbivory and pathogens, are modified over the controls under select OSCs. Overall, our genomic analysis reveals that lettuce production exhibits beneficial traits underexposure from select ST-OSCs. ST-OSCs integrated into greenhouses are, therefore, not only a promising technology for energy-neutral crop production as previously shown but can deliver benefits beyond those based on energy-balance considerations.
Read the complete research at www.biorxiv.org.
Beyond energy balance in agrivoltaic food production: Emergent crop traits from color selective solar cells, Melodi Charles, Brianne Edwards, Eshwar Ravishankar, John Calero, Reece Henry, Jeromy Rech, Carole Saravitz, Wei You, Harald Ade, Brendan O’Connor, Heike Sederoff bioRxiv 2022.03.10.482833; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.10.482833