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Largest Farm to Grow Crops Under Solar Panels Proves To Be A Bumper Crop For Agrivoltaic Land Use
(site.extension.uga.edu)
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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Possibly a stupid question, but is there anything toxic in the solar panels or their infrastructure that could contaminate the plants or soil below? Particularly if the panels were damaged in, say, extreme weather, but also as a result of general wear and tear. I'm thinking heavy metal dust, carcinogenic liquid components, that sort of thing. As per the article this seems like it could be a good land use pairing, but not if it renders the soil unfit for agriculture due to a buildup of contamination.
I've heard of the panels burning down making fhe field unsafe for use in the future
Do you have any more information on this? A quick search largely just shows results about how firefighters need to be careful since the panels can look bad but still be producing voltage and are a shock hazard.
It's probably a fair point - any fire there is now going to be burning a while load of artificial materials instead (as well as) plants. I could see that being an issue if there was a big fire. (Much larger cost to the farmer too!)
Silicon doesn't burn, and even if it did, it's literally just purified sand. The other materials in silicon solar cells are either only found in trace amounts, or also found naturally in soil, i.e. aluminum.