They’re testing whether solar panels and crops can share the same ground. <\/span><\/p>\n So can one field produce both power and food?<\/p>\n Near the town of Bedburg, in the Rhenish mining area, a field of around 7 hectares is doing more than one job.<\/p>\n As a demonstration project, it is testing out agrivoltaics, <\/strong>or Agri-PV.<\/strong><\/p>\n This means producing electricity and agricultural crops on the same land. <\/p>\n The company wants to examine how plants and solar panels interact, if at all. <\/p>\n It plans to do so over many years and many different weather conditions. <\/p>\n Since 2024, more than 6000 solar modules<\/strong> have been producing electricity there in an unconventional manner. <\/p>\n With a peak capacity of 3.2 megawatts, they’ve been making enough to power the equivalent of 1,044 homes.<\/p>\n That’s a lot of power. <\/p>\n That’s not all, though, as in between the lines of solar panels, something else is being produced.<\/strong><\/p>\n Because both solar power and agriculture use up space, the goal is to combine them as efficiently as possible<\/strong> to save space. <\/p>\n The usual assumption is that every hectare covered with solar panels is a hectare that cannot grow food. <\/p>\n But this project, run by RWE, is testing three different layouts that challenge this idea.<\/span><\/p>\n The first layer has upright, rigid solar panels.<\/p>\n The second has solar panels on a movable axis on a tracker system, following the sun from east to west. <\/p>\n The third layout has solar panels raised on a pergola-type frame. <\/p>\n In layouts one and two, crops like wheat and barley are grown between the rows of panels. <\/p>\n In the third layout, raspberries are grown in pots. <\/p>\n These crops are being harvested by local farmers and either turned into flour for baking, used in breweries, or sold for consumption.<\/p>\n Backed by scientists and funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, it seems to be set up for success. <\/p>\n One year into the project, the results are encouraging.<\/p>\n In the first two layouts, crop yields were comparable to those of another reference area.<\/p>\n Researchers even observed better protein content.<\/strong><\/p>\n The CEO of RWE Renewables Europe and Australia, Katja W\u00fcnschel, says the yields match those of conventionally managed locations, without the multi-use land. <\/p>\n RWE says that so far, the project has shown that power generation and farming can work on the same land.<\/p>\n The reason for an almost matched yield lies in the soil. The moisture remained even across the soil, including beneath the panels.<\/p>\n They didn’t block much rainwater, and their shadows also allowed for reduced evaporation. This combination means a positive impact on plant growth. <\/strong><\/p>\n Layout three, with the raspberries, also showed good results. <\/p>\n The panels actually helped protect the crops from storms and too much direct sunlight, producing healthy plants. <\/p>\n What made this layout even easier to use was the pergola frame. <\/p>\n The pergola-type frame could be used to hold a watering system, making farmers’ lives easier. <\/p>\n Similar pilot projects<\/a> are being tested in places like New Jersey, as the shared land idea spreads to America too. <\/p>\n RWE<\/a> plans to keep the project going over many years, with various crops and through various seasons. If the pattern of healthy crop yields continues, this could mean a new way of farming and producing electricity. Agrivoltaic projects are becoming popular, and this one is even studying whether bees can live alongside solar panels<\/a> too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Agricultural farms take up a lot of space. So do solar farms. It is easy to assume the two must have separate locations. But one German project is challenging these assumptions with a new idea. They’re testing whether solar panels and crops can share the same ground. So can one field produce both power and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":45555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_focus_keyword":"solar panels,agriculture,agrivoltaics","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_description":"A piece of land in Germany is being used for solar panels and agricultural farming. The project is aiming to use land as efficiently as possible.","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45520"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45726,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45520\/revisions\/45726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Germany is placing solar panels in a mining area and adding crops to the mix as well<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/INT1-A-former-German-coal-mine-now-hosts-6100-solar-panels-alongside-wheat-barley-and-raspberries-in-three-experimental-layouts-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/h2>\n
Germany shows us there is more than one way to use a field<\/h2>\n
What the first year’s harvest showed <\/h2>\n