let the construction begin! Agrivoltaics research facility is underway! first post going in

for those that wonder, the empty space is where the males were. They are killed immediately after they do their job. Here is a photo of the open field. Very dry conditions...with male stubble.

had a great day out in Central Oregon talking to Growers and other stakeholders. Then I checked in on one of our agrivoltaics experiments over a carrot seed field. Visual improvements in vigor, will have to wait for yield samples to confirm.

How far into the future do you project technological, social, economic, political progress/change when planning research?

well, I was told the construction would start in earnest today, but it looks like it will be tomorrow. Cant wait to share pictures of the new agrivoltaics research facility getting built.

Great food, great people, a highlight event.

Dr. Chaplen kicking off a section of ENGR100, a first year curriculum we share with all @EngineeringOSU programs to help students develop fundamental skills and discover their majors. Welcome future Ecological Engineers!! #Engineering #education #STEM #OregonState

was Great chatting with you yesterday Lou, the system you built...🤌

Breaking news: construction of the agrivoltaic research facility will begin in earnest on Monday! A crew is up there now making preparations. 7.5 years of pushing and fundraising, many highs and lows along the way, we are almost there.

let the learning begin. (Today's art selection is 'unconventional education' by @offshoot3D)

13/13 Agrivoltaics are a solution that provides a economic win for both growers and power producers. And, this is why they are inevitable and imminent.

12/13 there are a couple of ways to respond to this, and it is often presented as a false choice: solar or ag? But it is absolutely possible (as our extensive research shows) to do both, and even design systems such that both solar and ag production are *increased*

11/13 from all of the above we conclude that: a push for renewables --> a push toward solar --> a push for solar into agricultural lands.

10/13 this is a description of agricultural land. After all, agriculture is a form of solar harvesting. Farmers just had an 8,000 year head start to populate all of the best spots.

9/13 from a solar developer standpoint, ideal sites are close to infrastructure, flat, already disturbed ecologically, have deep soils (reduces install $), have plentiful sun, are in a temperate environment to avoid overheating, and are in large contiguous parcels.

8/13 however, these sites are the exception, may not be large enough for utility scale production, or may not have infrastructure near them to offtake the energy.

7/13 this pushes solar installations to ground-mount. But what ground should you 'cover'? Of course there are brownfields, decommissioned landfills and other alternate sites. These should absolutely be considered,

6/13, what about rooftops? There simply aren't enough. Anyone with a rooftop solar system will tell you it doesn't cover their full energy consumption. Scale this up to every roof (many of which are not viable)

5/13, I conclude that solar is the most immediate term renewable energy technology to add into the energy mix. The issue with solar is that is takes a large land area (relative to say nuclear).

4/13 as an aside check out the Wave Energy Lab and NuScale (nuclear) for great work at Oregon State University in these areas that expand the tech to overcome the the limitations. https://t.co/F4wKSkm088 https://t.co/GxwylO82aK