If it’s Good for Sheep it’s Good for People.
The Rise of Hortivoltaics — a Master Stroke in Climate Adaptation for Cities
By 2035 agrivoltaics will be a bigger industry than electric vehicles.
In fact it will be the largest of all renewable energy industries.
18 months ago I wrote about agrivoltaics partly as a stream of my own research and partly because it’s one of the best ‘positive adaptations’ I know — and remains so.
My call about agrivoltaics becoming the biggest renewables industry is completely un-verified and not based on any data, but it is based on
- Another 18 months of gaining a deeper and broader understanding of the food — climate change relationship, and how dire the predictions of declining food supplies are;
- Tracking the accelerating shift towards electrification of everything, meaning we’ll eventually be draping solar panels on anything that doesn’t move; and
- Watching the consistent one-step-forward-no-steps-back agrivoltaics research being conducted around the world (I won’t mention names here as I’m sure to omit some who deserve a mention).
And at the end of that piece 18 months ago I asked a question:
“Could we overlay Agrivoltaics onto our urban roofscapes as a city adaptation to climate change, not only creating renewable energy and food, but also providing green open space for people?”
A recent study tour to Singapore pulled this old question back to mind…
I was wandering the streets exploring (as an Adelaide-grown guy would do when it’s only 32degC and reasonable humidity) and noticed where some streets and public spaces had been covered by fixed shading. I’ve visited Singapore before, but this time I had my radar on for evidence of the S$110bn plan to adapt the island to climate change by 2100 (the link is to Singapore’s Climate Action Plan — it’s a reasonably good piece of work). I don’t believe the street shading is part of that plan but it IS inherently a great adaptation.
But knowing of the trend towards electrification of everything I had to wonder when these street shades might be covered in photovoltaics (PV)?
And that’s when my old Agrivoltaics article came to mind…
The simple diagram is this:
- We started with roof top PV — to give us low cost renewable energy right where it’s needed
- Roof top PV is now finding its way to farms as agrivoltaics — to give farmers dual income, and to boost agricultural productivity (I’m keeping it simple here — there are many benefits)
- … What if we then bring agrivoltaics into our cities?
A little note for my sketch — those wobbly looking things under the agrivoltaics are sheep.
I’m not good at drawing sheep.
But the sheep are happy — here in Australia a recent study has revealed that sheep under Agrivoltaics grow better wool, for no additional effort or investment. Happy sheep, happy farmer.
This article is a great capture of the status of agrivoltaics in Australia’s farming sector. It’s gone from strength to strength since I wrote about this 18 months ago. Watch this space!! (thanks to Renew Economy)
To get a little technical on the terminology: ‘agrivoltaics’ is an amalgam of ‘agriculture’ and ‘photovoltaics’. But ‘agriculture’ in cities isn’t quite the right term as cities don’t (at least for the time-being) produce broadacre crops like wheat, rice, oats or millet.
But cities are well suited (with the right adaptations) to specialising in ‘horticulture’ which is all about fruit & veg, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, herbs, flowers, and even non-food (for humans) plants like ornamental trees and street planting. High nutrient density, high yield, lots of jobs, etc.
So, introducing ‘hortivoltaics’.
[Of course I came up with that word myself only to find that it’s already shown early signs of use around the world as part of the vertical farming movement, so we’re running with it!]
So to look forward…
Hortivoltaics can be a lucrative climate adaptation investment for cities.
Not only providing shade for people in increasingly hot urban environments, but also generating renewable energy right where it’s needed, providing shade for public and private spaces — making it possible for retailers to continue trading, and providing optimum growing conditions for an armada of urban food gardens to help offset food supply risk.
As always, ‘design is easy, people are difficult’ so I’ll leave some questions for pondering;
- Who pays for installation? Should the City pay for the support structures and the building owners or occupants pay for the PV? All State owned? Public ownership of micro-grids which will include the hortivoltaics?
- Private ownership of an asset sitting above a public street?
- Who maintains? Generally this would be the responsibility of the owner, but are there other solutions?
- Who is liable? If a PV panel comes crashing down and… who carries the liability? One of the above? Are there currently insurance products that would provide suitable coverage for e.g. a community group installing their own hortivoltaics over a public street?
I’d love to learn of built examples of hortivoltaics around the world.
Do you know of any productive urban food gardens that are shaded by overhead photovoltaics? Please let me know in the comments.
