CAREER: Combined land use of solar energy and agriculture for socioeconomic and environmental co-benefits

能源和农业部门之间对土地和水资源的竞争可能会破坏可持续发展目标，包括减缓气候变化、控制森林砍伐和提高生活质量。尽管担心大规模太阳能光伏(PV)的部署会侵占美国的农田和自然区域，但太阳能光伏和植被可以共存的多种配置可能提供互惠互利。此外，在地理条件限制导致世界上一些非电力化地区(如印度尼西亚)太偏远、成本太高而无法通过电网供电的地区，小规模的并置光伏农业设施可能有潜力改善农村生计和减少化石燃料的排放。然而，可以更好地了解太阳能电池板与底层土壤-植被系统之间的相互作用，以及共址系统的技术经济可行性。该项目将使用生命周期评估(LCA)模型和田间试验相结合的方法，调查太阳能光伏与精心选择的农业作物或活动共址的协同效应和权衡。该项目寻求设计可持续的工程解决方案，通过提供关于太阳能光伏-农业共址方法的有效分析方法和基础数据，来降低太阳能开发的环境和经济成本。此外，该项目将评估不同规模的共用办公系统的经济可行性以及改善农村生计的潜力。通过能源可获得性和创造新的收入来源来提高生活质量，将减少对额外土地改造的需求。美国和印度尼西亚都为太阳能开发带来了独特的挑战，对环境的影响微乎其微。因此，这项研究的预期结果旨在通过优化土地利用效率、保持农业生产和避免额外的土地转换，为决策者提供见解，并为更智能的能源规划铺平道路。将开发的建模框架有可能应用于世界上许多由于人口和生活水平快速增长而受到土地限制的地区。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Competition for land and water resources between the energy and agriculture sectors may undermine sustainable developmental goals including mitigating climate change, controlling deforestation, and improving the quality of life. Despite concerns of large solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment encroaching on agricultural lands and natural areas in the United States, there are multiple configurations where solar PV and vegetation can be co-located that may provide mutual benefits. Moreover, in areas where geographic constraints render some of the non-electrified regions in the world (e.g. in Indonesia) too remote and costly to electrify by extension of electrical grids, small-scale co-located PV-agriculture installations may have the potential to improve rural livelihoods and to reduce emission from fossil fuels. However, the interactions between solar panels and the underlying soil-vegetation system, and the techno-economic feasibility of co-located systems could be better understood. The project will investigate the synergies and tradeoffs of co-locating solar PV with carefully selected agricultural crops or activities, using the combination of a life cycle assessment (LCA) models and field experiments.The project seeks to design sustainable engineering solutions to lower the environmental and economic cost of solar energy development by providing effective analysis methodologies and foundational data on solar PV - agriculture co-location approaches. Further, the project will evaluate the economic feasibility of co-located systems at different scales and the potential for improving rural livelihoods. Improving quality of life through energy accessibility and generating new income streams will decrease the need for additional land transformation. Both the United States and Indonesia provide unique challenges for solar energy development with minimal environmental impact. Therefore, the anticipated outcome of this research is targeted to provide insights to decision makers and prepare the way for smarter energy planning by optimizing the efficiency of land use, by maintaining agricultural production, and by avoiding additional land conversion. The modeling framework to be developed has the potential to be applied elsewhere, in many regions of the world experiencing land constraints resulting from rapidly increasing population and living standards.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.