Which crops can be grown under PV panels?

Tomato, lettuce, pepper, cucumbers and strawberries are the most studied crops under PV panels (Fig. 5). The recent literatures for applications of selective shading systems on the aforementioned crops and others plants are reviewed in the following sections.

What plants grow under photovoltaic panels?

Kavga A, Trypanagnostopoulos G, Zervoudakis G, Tripanagnostopoulos Y (2018) Growth and physiological characteristics of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and rocket (Eruca sativa Mill.) plants cultivated under photovoltaic panels.

Can integrated photovoltaics help grow tomatoes?

In a study conducted by Li et al. it was noted that semi-transparent building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) mounted on top of a tomato greenhouse with 20% of shade produce 637 kWh of annual electric energy generation where the system did not affect the growth of tomato (Hassanien et al. 2018).

Why are solar panels better than open field plants?

The reduction in direct sunlight exposure beneath the PV panels led to cooler air temperature during the day and warmer temperatures at night, which allowed the plant under the solar arrays to retain more moisture than the control crops that grew in open field planting area.

Do solar panels affect crop yields & fruit quality?

The solar radiation received by the plants may decrease crop yields and reduce fruit sizes (Marrou et al. 2013a). Consequently, the impact that solar panels could have on crop yield and fruit quality has attracted great attention of researchers. Tomato, lettuce, pepper, cucumbers and strawberries are the most studied crops under PV panels (Fig. 5).

Can lettuce be grown inside a PV greenhouse?

However, high cost hindered their application. More recently, Ledda et al. proved that lettuce as medium light demanding crop can be grown inside PV greenhouse with 25–50% PV cover ratio with an average yield factor of 94–73% (6–27% yield reduction), respectively (Fig. 7) (Cossu et al. 2020).