Should fertile land be used to grow crops, or converted to solar panels to produce green energy? A new kind of farming says that you can do both. The organic farm community of Heggelbach in Germany, has been the focal point of an experiment to merge these two activities. Under the guidance of the German government, they built elevated solar installations under which crops can grow. This method is known as agrophotovoltaics (APV). Steel columns 7 meters high hold the panels that cover 2,500 m2 of growing crops. In winter the panels protect the plants from snow, and in summer they give shade from the heat. The electricity produced is used to run the farm, and any surplus is fed back into the grid.



There is enough space under the panels for the farmers to navigate a tractor through the rows of potatoes, celery and wheat. The researchers chose these varieties because they wanted to test typical German staple foods: a vegetable, a grain and potatoes. Over the past four years, technicians have been analyzing every aspect of this experiment, and the results have been very positive. The question they are asking is whether the pairing of innovative solar technology with regenerative farming can allow farmers to harvest both vegetables and electricity from the same land? The answer appears to be ‘yes’.