OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
Solar farms use herbicides to control plant growth near the PV arrays.
Hail damage in Texas.
- Thread starter realpinochet
- Start date
Doggydogworld
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2022
- Messages
- 364
Big hail comes straight down, except in a tornado. Gravity trumps wind.
Hail here in TX can bash through car windows. You do not want to be out in the open! I drove into some medium hail a few years ago (in a convertible, ha) and cracked my front windshield. Big hail is very localized, thankfully. Maybe a few hundred acres for a few minutes. Surrounding areas mostly get small/medium hail, some none at all.
crossy
Solar Addict
Meanwhile in the UK we use sheep.
Baa.
How solar panel diversification is working for a sheep enterprise - Farmers Weekly
Leasing land to a company for a 47MW solar park is generating a reliable income for farmers Stephen and Clare Morgan, at Fenton Home Farm, near
www.fwi.co.uk
"Agrivoltaics" is definitely a growing idea, if you don't completely cover the area with panels you can grow shade-loving plants underneath.
too green for the USAMeanwhile in the UK we use sheep.
Baa.
How solar panel diversification is working for a sheep enterprise - Farmers Weekly
Leasing land to a company for a 47MW solar park is generating a reliable income for farmers Stephen and Clare Morgan, at Fenton Home Farm, near
View attachment 205421
"Agrivoltaics" is definitely a growing idea, if you don't completely cover the area with panels you can grow shade-loving plants underneath.
we use agent orange all over our fields like real men
I was just thinking the other day on making some hinged covers for my panels. I check NOAA's SPC site every day so I have a high chance of getting them covered. Not much light on those days anyway.
SPC Day 1 Outlook
Severe weather, tornado, thunderstorm, fire weather, storm report, tornado watch, severe thunderstorm watch, mesoscale discussion, convective outlook products from the Storm Prediction Center.
www.spc.noaa.gov
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
Yeah, I have been reading up on the Agravoltaics, lettuce, spinich, onions - many veggies prefer to grow under partial shade. I have a veggie garden and have been pondering if a couple rows of PV set up high enough to clear a person might be a benefit. Still thinking about it, not urgent or anything.
For Hail issue, I asked my insurance co and they couldn't come up with a rate for my set up/area, too little information for the actuaries I guess. So I decided to put aside a $100 per month into a separate account - for upgrades or damage or whatever may come one day. Self-insured I suppose.
For Hail issue, I asked my insurance co and they couldn't come up with a rate for my set up/area, too little information for the actuaries I guess. So I decided to put aside a $100 per month into a separate account - for upgrades or damage or whatever may come one day. Self-insured I suppose.
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
I had a chance to get some used seal glazing units once time, I wanted them for a greenhouse.
Took one to a commercial landscaping co and they had a test-rig that measured the light and wavelengths that passed the glazed unit - they said it was 'not too bad' for veggies, no good for flowers. ok so I built a greenhouse from those free sealed glazing units. Grows my starters and veggies for about 6-7 years now, all good!
I read that the PV panels are using a similar band of light that plants need, so may not be a great application for a greenhouse, but I guess a test would show the answer!
For the Agravoltaics, the idea is to space the PV rows out more than you would for just Solar, to ensure the plants get some direct sun, just not all day direct sun. A greenhouse may not work well for this, since you can't really space the panels unless you do a row of PV and then a row of plain glass, then another row of PV or similar.
Interesting. Maybe I’ll have to do an e/w roof on the greenhouse so that only half the day is intruded on
Just looking for a place to park more panels. If I only do one side I don’t need to acquire bifacial either I guess.
I saw an article recently about a solar farm in Michigan. I’m not sure if it was posted here or elsewhere. Anyways, the land was considered barren or no longer arable. They placed the panels and seeded native weeds and plants. A couple of years later the bee population had increased by hundreds of percent! I wish I could better quote or find the article.
The unfortunate takeaway is that people may attribute the panels to the success, which may be true idk, but it only happened as a thought experiment for land that couldn’t be farmed on anymore. It could have been turned into a parking lot and done zero benefit to the pollinators.
I’ve never been a greenie but that article was fascinating/eye opening
Just looking for a place to park more panels. If I only do one side I don’t need to acquire bifacial either I guess.
I saw an article recently about a solar farm in Michigan. I’m not sure if it was posted here or elsewhere. Anyways, the land was considered barren or no longer arable. They placed the panels and seeded native weeds and plants. A couple of years later the bee population had increased by hundreds of percent! I wish I could better quote or find the article.
The unfortunate takeaway is that people may attribute the panels to the success, which may be true idk, but it only happened as a thought experiment for land that couldn’t be farmed on anymore. It could have been turned into a parking lot and done zero benefit to the pollinators.
I’ve never been a greenie but that article was fascinating/eye opening
Quattrohead
Solar Wizard
Holy shit you killed me, funniest thing I have read all year
Or Round up, like I use…
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
From the research I have done so far, part of the benefit of panels over plants is the reduced sunlight - for plants that don't thrive in full sun.
Part of the benefit is a change in moisture since the panels reduce temperatures at the soil level, so reduce water evaporation.
A third part of the effect is cutting down ground level wind, this also reduces water evaporation, but in some cases wind damage to certain tall plants like high bush peas etc.
Anyone that has ever had a kid's trampoline on their lawn can tell you, some things grow better with partial shade.
Dave911
Solar Enthusiast
And sheep are notorious liars, especially the ones wearing garters
That’s what I use ….i just said the trade name for ease…. Your right it’s much cheaper …
Not sure why so many are bummed out about using a little round- up to keep weeds away from the array ..otherwise you must weed whack which makes a big mess on your panels…
Being only 2 feet off the ground , I usually create about about a one foot border around the outside of the array then mow the rest aimed outward …works great .
Brucey
Solar Wizard
Well, if you use real round up it will kill very quickly but doesn’t last near as long ..it’s weaker but got something that makes it work almost very quick .. it will last 2-3-weeks depending on the weeds and where ya are…and how you apply…
If you use the genaric ( like eraser ) I mix it 2-3 times as strong as suggested and it take about a week to work (+/-) but lasts half the summer ..or longer…wayyyy cheaper and less work it seems.
Your mixture method and application technique affects how long it lasts. I have to maintain about 10 acres of pasture and yard with mowing ,spraying and trimming.. it takes a bit of practice to figure out what works best…
Basically I mix it strong and spray a lot where I put it.
I’m sure many have a different method that works well too.
Had a college science instructor state it's the rubber tires on a car that keeps occupants safe in a lightning strike.
No matter how bad I wanted to say something, I kept my mouth shut and answered the test questions.
