Growers could use their glasshouses to generate electricity through the use of solar glass. Translucent solar panels have been developed by Soliculture, an American start-up company, specifically for the greenhouse sector. Their panels convert some of the sunlight into electricity, while still allowing light through to the crop. Figures suggest it could be possible to generate around 500kW of electrical output per hectare of solar glass roof.

A laboratory greenhouse is currently being built in the USA, which will investigate the effectiveness and costs of growing under solar glass. Further details can be found here. The article points out that traditional solar panels, particularly when installed in large-scale arrays, can have an unintended environmental impact. That is, the land is used for electricity production and not for agriculture or recreation, for example. If translucent panels become a viable alternative, this could alleviate the problem, allowing power production to occur alongside typical land uses.

You can read more about this in the March edition of Energy News from AHDB Horticulture. For more on the latest energy saving techniques within commercial nurseries, check out the GrowSave website.

Photograph used with the kind permission of Soliculture.