UCLA solar roofs harvest energy for greenhouses

Renewable energy sources such as solar are in high demand as efforts are made towards achieving net zero emissions in 2050, but solar panels can take up significant space and are often difficult to scale, the UCLA team said.

The new field of ‘agrivoltaics’ focuses on the simultaneous use of land for solar power generation and agriculture; replacing the glass in greenhouses with solar panels could power the lamps and water controls in the greenhouse, or even the whole farm.

UCLA Samueli School of Engineering’s materials scientist Yang Yang and his team now claim to have developed a solar device that could be used in such applications, absorbing energy from sunlight without blocking the light that plants need.

In a study published in Nature Sustainability, they highlighted a new, viable application of solar cells that does not require large plots of land.

The team has developed a strategy for augmenting semi-transparent organic solar cells. These cells rely upon carbon-based materials, as opposed to the inorganic substances in conventional devices.