A New Partner for Solar

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Jan. 11, 2025

Solar is gaining traction as panels become more affordable and battery storage becomes more efficient. According to Statista.com., the U.S. now gets 5.6 percent of its electrical power from solar energy, three times more than just two decades ago. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, solar will expand another 75 percent over the next two years.

There are still troubling issues with solar, both in creating panels at the beginning of their useful lifespan and disposing of them years later. It isn’t helpful that China controls fully 80 percent of the world’s solar panel manufacturing capacity, and our Department of Energy expects that number to increase to 95 percent in the coming years. In 2023, China made more solar panels than the rest of the world combined, and the top 10 companies manufacturing solar panel parts are all in China.

Additionally, until very recently, we believed China and Russia contained most of the world’s rare earth metals needed for the inner workings of solar panels and their storage batteries (not to mention computers and phones). There is also an environmental cost, as materials used in solar panels must be mined and transported and the actual construction and assembly processes create more toxic waste.

But solar is still a far superior option to the continued burning of fossil fuels. The panels and batteries are more affordable and efficient, producing more energy with smaller footprints and making solar a more reliable 24-hour option.

The most recent good news is the discovery of enormous stores of lithium under the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley of California. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates there are at least 3,400 kilotons of lithium, enough to provide car batteries for 375 million electric vehicles, in the brine buried deep beneath the Salton Sea. It won’t be easy to extract, but it will be a step up from depending entirely on imports from elsewhere.

We’ve also discovered significant deposits of needed rare earth metals in old mines in both California and Wyoming. (They aren’t kidding with the use of the word “rare.” Those most commonly used in computer components are lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, samarium, europium, terbium, and dysprosium.)

The biggest issue with solar is no longer cost; all aspects of solar are now cheaper than the costs of fossil fuels. The problem has been space. In order to make a serious impact, solar arrays have previously been created in massive size to provide power to tens or hundreds of thousands of users. The world’s largest solar array, in China, produces 5 gigawatts of power, enough to power a small country for an entire year, but it occupies a stunning 484,000 acres.

It is not at all clear that is the best future for solar. Which brings us to something being called agrivoltaics and agritecture.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has discovered that solar panels and agriculture can be symbiotic partners. In Maine, solar panels have successfully been placed over blueberry patches; in Italy over wine grapes; and outside of Boulder, Colorado, farmers have found crops like tomatoes, turnips, carrots, squash, beets, lettuce, kale, chard, and most peppers not only survive under solar panels but thrive. Since the panels can be sited as much as six to eight feet above ground, there is room underneath for crops and even tractors and other farm equipment.

The panels protect the plants from excessive sun and heat, wind, hail, and other adverse weather while allowing enough room for pollinators and other ground critters. The panels and the crops cool each other. The improved growing conditions reduce the needs for fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides and improves soil health.

A multi-year study on three solar farms in Minnesota conducted jointly by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Minnesota, Temple University, and Minnesota Native Landscapes found the solar farms could actually help restore lost prairie grasses.

This all comes to mind as debate heats up over a proposal by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to allow clear-cutting on the still forested section of 420 acres of state land in Otsego County so a solar array can be installed.

Solar arrays are not a bad idea, and the DNR already leases some 50,000 acres of Michigan forests to be lumbered annually, so the debate over part of a 420-acre tract is more than a little specious. Saving or losing those trees likely won’t matter in the big picture in a state with an estimated 14 billion trees on 20 million acres of forest. The hysterical reaction of some Republican legislators is rich, and their clamoring for everyone at the DNR to be fired is just ludicrous.

At the same time, protecting our precious resources with chainsaws and bulldozers isn’t such a good idea; a partnership between solar and agriculture is.