New Science News documentary by Luke Groskin, featuring our labs research on agrivoltaics/multi use solar. Over the past decade, we studied the co-location of solar energy with crops/biofuels, grazing and/or pollinator-friendly native plants at multiple sites around the world, and the highlighted the environmental and socio-economic co-benefits and trade-offs.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/solar-agriculture-farming-argivoltaic

Congratulations Caroline !

Caroline Merheb (PhD) is the winner of the student design competition as part of The AgriVoltaics World Conference 2024 The purpose of this competition was to develop innovate agrivoltaic design concepts that address community sustainability challenges across the food-energy-water nexus. Caroline’s design for an urban setting is aimed at (1) enhancing access to fresh food in low-income areas/food deserts, (2) reducing surface temperatures and urban heat islands, and (3) increasing green community spaces and improving the urban aesthetics. The AgriVoltaics World Conference, now in its 5th year and spanning all five continents, provides high-level scientific exchange and great networking opportunities. This is the first time this meeting is held in the US, hosted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Denver, Colorado (11-13 June).

Leonard, J., S. Ravi and S. K. Mohanty, (2024) Preferential Emission of Microplastics from Biosolid-Applied Agricultural Soils: Field Evidence and Theoretical Framework, Environmental Science & Technology Lett. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00850

Featured on the front page of Los Angeles Times !

*Media Coverage:  Los Angeles Times, American Chemical Society (ACS Press Room), PÚLICO, Scienmag, WPN, MSN, EcoWatch, ScienceDaily, AAAS EurekaAlert, Science News Explores, Phys.Org

Can the the implementation of agrivoltaics in vacant urban spaces provide additional environmental and socioeconomic benefits, including buffering heat stress, extending seasonal range limits of some crops, storm water management and the potential to address food deserts? Caroline Merheb‘s research is case in point. Our extensive sensor network monitors around 50 physical variables at the TU agrivoltaic test site, including multiple sensors to track the spatial and temporal distribution of light (direct, PAR, albedo), soil moisture, air/soil temperature, panel temperature, wind dynamics, and electricity generation

Congratulations Dr. Chong Seok Choi and Rebecca Bertel (ES major) ! New publication in Applied Energy. Multi-year multi-site evaluation of different site management strategies at utility scale solar energy sites. This study highlights the need for evaluating multiple ecosystem services at solar sites to identify site-specific dominant environmental co-benefits in co-located systems

Khatei, K., T. Rinaldo, R. S. Van Pelt, P. D’Odorico and S. Ravi (2024), Wind erodibility and particulate matter emissions of salt-affected soils: The case of dry soils in a low humidity atmosphere, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, https://doi. org/10.1029/2023JD039576

Burger, W. J., R. S. Van Pelt, D. E. Grandstaff, G. Wang, T. T. Sankey, J. Li, J. Sankey and S. Ravi (2023). Multi-year tracing of spatial and temporal dynamics of post-fire aeolian sediment transport using rare Earth elements provide insights into grassland management. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 128, e2023JF007274. https://doi. org/10.1029/2023JF007274

* Highlighted by the American Geophysical Union AGU-EoS.  Editors highlights: by Okin et al. (2024) Rare earth element tracers provide insight into how fire and sediment transport influence the vegetation state of the world’s drylands.

This week our research group joined ~27K attendees from around the world for the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. Our group contributed to 11 presentations/abstracts and organizing two sessions in Hydrology and Global Environmental Change sections. Incredibly proud of all our students !

Monday:

H13J-1576 Internal feedback mechanisms driving shrub-grass dominance: from shrub encroachment to exotic grass invasions in North American deserts. Sujith Ravi

ED11C-0773 Developing an Inclusive Learning Community Focused on Agrivoltaic Research: Sofia Taboada

H13J-1571 Salinity and soil water retention: The compounding effects of osmotic and matric potential: Lucy Archibald

Tuesday:

GC211-1039A Global Synthesis of Multi-use Solar Energy Projects: Synergies and Tradeoffs: Caroline Merheb

GC211-1049 Multi-year field study on the impacts of managed sheep grazing on soil health at solar energy sites: Natalie Thomas

GC211-1045 Evaluating the environmental co-benefits and tradeoffs of urban agrivoltaics in Philadelphia: Cara Rydzewski

GC21I-1048 Multi-Year Analysis of Physical Interactions between Solar PV Arrays and Underlying Soil-Plant Components in Vegetated Utility-Scale Systems: Chong Seok Choi

Friday

GC53J-0936 Preferential Emission of Microplastics from Biosolid-applied Agricultural Soils: Field Evidence and Theoretical Framework: Dona Jamie Leonard,

A53N-2465 Wind Erodibility and Particulate Matter Emissions of Dry Salt-Affected Soils Under Diverse Atmospheric Humidity Conditions Ganesh Khatei

EP53C-1678Salinity Effects on Soil Surface Erodibility and Dust Emissions: Robert S Van Pelt

Session on Monday
H12C – Advances in Ecohydrology of Water-Limited Environments 
(Co-organized by S. Ravi)

Session on Tuesday
GC211- Dual-Use Renewable Energy and Agrivoltaics for Climate-Resilient Landscapes and Food-Energy-Water Security
(Co-organized by Chong Seok Choi )

New publication by Chong Seok Choi (PhD, EES) and Dellena Bloom (ES major) in American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Earth’s Future on the benefits and tradeoffs of multifunctional solar PV projects. Agrivoltaics in agricultural areas with carbon debt can be an effective climate mitigation strategy along with revitalizing agricultural soils, generating income streams from fallow land, and providing pollinator habitats. Our findings provide foundational data for site preservation and for optimizing agrivoltaic designs by targeting site specific co-benefits.

Choi, C.S., J. Macknick, Y. Li, D. Bloom, J. McCall, and S. Ravi, (2023) Environmental co-benefits of maintaining natural vegetation with solar photovoltaic infrastructure. Earth’s Future, 10.1029/2023EF003542

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023EF003542

EES students Caroline Merheb (PhD), Cara Rydzewski (ES major) studying the benefits and trade-offs of multi-functional solar projects in urban areas, that provide renewable energy while supporting food production. #NSF CAREER