Solar Sprawl and Agrivoltaics

We kicked the class off with a slideshow of sprawl. Here's another picture to jog our memory.

http://asifpeoplemattered.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/sprawl/sprawl-2/

I have had solar power on my mind lately because of the movement here on campus to start a green fund. Here is one of the "latest and greatest" solar projects out of Chicago.

http://www.illinoissolar.org/events?eventId=198024&EventViewMode=EventDetails

http://www.illinoissolar.org/events?eventId=198024&EventViewMode=EventDetails

Now, to this project's credit the solar panels were placed on top of a brownfield. Instead of remediating the brownfield, a solar plant was installed. Solar plants of this scale are encouraged as a "sustainable" alternative to fossil fuels, but this plant doesn't look like what I imagined "sustainable" to be. It serves only one purpuse, to generate power.

What other functions do solar panels have? I started thinking about the opportunity for an agirculture/photovoltaic intercrop where the solar panels could provide shade to certain shade loving species. After some time of researching, I found this.

http://wcca2011.org/news/Issue4.html

Behold, an agrivoltaic system. The first of these systems has just been built in Montipellier, France. Preliminary modeling shows an increase in overall efficiency of land use. The researchers will produce findings after a three year study. For more information, look at C. Dupraz, et. al. (2011), Combining Solar Photovoltaic Panels and Food Crops for Optimising Land Use: Towards New Agrivoltaic Schemes,out of Renewable Energy.