Climate love review

Kenya is using solar panels to boost crops by ‘harvesting the sun twice’

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Patrick Kiash

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LATIA AGRIBUSINESS SOLUTIONS

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Solar panels are not a new way of providing cheap power across much of the African continent, where there is rarely a shortage of sunshine. But growing crops underneath the panels is, and the process has had such promising trials in Kenya that has been already deployed in the open-field farms.
Known as Agrivoltaics, the technique harvests solar energy twice: where panels have traditionally been used to harness the sun’s rays to generate energy, they are also utilized to provide shade for growing crops, helping to retain moisture in the soil and boosting growth.
An initial year-long research collaboration between the University of Sheffield, World Agroforestry and the Kajiado-based Latia Agripreneurship Institute has shown promising results in the semi-arid Kajiado county.
For example, cabbages grown under the 180, 345-watt solar panels have been a third bigger, and healthier, than those grown in control plots with the same amount of fertilizer and water.
The solar panels can be placed three meters from the ground, providing ample room for a farmer to work below, or higher in bigger systems to allow access for agricultural machinery.
One of the scientists overseeing project acknowledged the technology has limitations, but says that in “areas of Kenya which are not currently suitable for horticulture, it may be possible to grow other crops under the improved environmental conditions under the panels”.
In other countries including France, the US and Germany, the technology has been employed successfully.

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