太陽能農地？

太陽能正在迅速成為主要能源。太陽能市場在過去幾年大幅成長，預計到 2030 年美國的複合年增長率仍將達到 15.4%。

Solar is quickly becoming a major energy source. The market for solar energy has grown massively over the last few years and is still expected to grow by 15.4% CAGR in the US until 2030.

太陽能正在迅速成為主要能源。太陽能市場在過去幾年大幅成長，預計到 2030 年美國的複合年增長率仍將達到 15.4%。

Source: Grand View Research

來源：Grand View Research

The West's adoption of solar energy is actually dwarfed by the global growth of solar energy, with China leading the charge, as it is responsible for more solar power project pipelines than the rest of the world combined.

與全球太陽能成長相比，西方國家對太陽能的採用實際上相形見絀，而中國處於領先地位，因為中國負責的太陽能發電項目管道比世界其他國家的總和還要多。

China has been ramping up its renewable energy capacity year on year, installing more solar power between 2023 and 2024 than the previous three years combined, and more than the total global capacity installed in 2023.

中國逐年增加再生能源裝置容量，2023年至2024年間太陽能裝置量超過前三年的總和，也超過2023年全球裝置總量。

This has put the Asian giant on track to achieve an installed wind and solar capacity of 1,200 GW by the end of the year, putting it six years ahead of the government goal.

這使得這家亞洲巨頭預計在年底前實現 1,200 吉瓦的風能和太陽能裝置容量，比政府目標提前六年。

Source: Energy Wind Down Media

來源：Energy Wind Down Media

This has led important publications like The Economist to literally call it a new age. We explored what new technology will make it a reality in “The Solar Age – A Bright Future To Mankind”.

這導致《經濟學人》等重要出版物將其稱為「新時代」。我們在「太陽能時代—人類光明的未來」中探討了哪些新技術將使其成為現實。

Source: The Economist

資料來源：經濟學人

Progress in semiconductor manufacturing and a growing economy of scale in the production of solar panels has led to a steady decline in photovoltaic costs, which have become 30x cheaper since 1990. As a result, photovoltaic technology is now dominating the solar industry.

半導體製造的進步和太陽能電池板生產規模經濟的不斷增長導致光伏成本穩步下降，自 1990 年以來，光伏成本已便宜了 30 倍。

Source: EIA

來源：這裡

However, solar energy is starting to meet an issue. This is because solar is relatively low in energy density when looking at land usage.

然而，太陽能開始遇到一個問題。這是因為從土地使用情況來看，太陽能的能量密度相對較低。

In fact, it is one of the least efficient energy sources regarding land usage, with only equally carbon-neutral wind, hydropower, and biomass scoring worse.

事實上，就土地利用而言，它是效率最低的能源之一，只有同樣的碳中風能、水力發電和生質能得分更差。

Source: Wouter Beel Gravendeel

資料來源：Wouter Beel Gravendeel

This leads to situations where farmland or natural habitats get covered with solar panels for utility-scale solar farms. So, while this reduces carbon emissions, it comes with many unwanted side effects, from the destruction of natural habitats to the risk of erosion, especially in mountainous areas.

這導致農田或自然棲息地被太陽能電池板覆蓋，用於公用事業規模的太陽能發電場。因此，雖然這減少了碳排放，但它也帶來了許多不必要的副作用，從自然棲息地的破壞到侵蝕的風險，特別是在山區。

For example, in the Fujian province of China, you can see the entirety of these hills covered in solar panels.

例如，在中國福建省，您可以看到整個山丘都覆蓋著太陽能板。

Source: The Atlantic

資料來源：大西洋月刊

Shortage Of Arable Land

耕地短缺

This is a growing problem, as we are already losing a lot of arable land every year, as much as 100 million hectares yearly. The largest factor in these losses is not solar farms but erosion, desertification, urbanization, poor farming practices, etc.

這是一個日益嚴重的問題，因為我們已經每年失去大量耕地，每年多達 1 億公頃。這些損失的最大因素不是太陽能發電場，而是侵蝕、沙漠化、都市化、不良耕作方式等。

However, this does not mean that the solution to one problem (carbon emissions) should become a problem for another major issue (arable land losses).

然而，這並不意味著解決一個問題（碳排放）應該成為解決另一個重大問題（耕地流失）的問題。

Some solutions are obvious, like utilizing rooftops, especially industrial buildings, but also residential ones. Using desert lands can be another option, but these are also fragile ecosystems, and removing dust consumes a lot of locally rare water resources.

有些解決方案是顯而易見的，例如利用屋頂，尤其是工業建築，但也包括住宅建築。利用沙漠土地可能是另一種選擇，但這些土地也是脆弱的生態系統，清除灰塵會消耗大量當地稀有的水資源。

These can be part of the solution, but for solar to replace fossil fuels entirely, it will need to keep growing at a double-digit rate for decades. And land usage will become an issue.

這些可以成為解決方案的一部分，但要讓太陽能完全取代化石燃料，它需要在幾十年內保持兩位數的成長。土地使用將成為一個問題。

So, the best solution would be to mix agricultural and power production, using a method called agrivoltaics (agriculture + photovoltaics).

因此，最好的解決方案是混合農業和電力生產，使用稱為農業光伏（農業+光伏）的方法。

Source: Dezeen

來源：Dezeen

Farm Buildings

農場建築

The simplest way to integrate solar power into farms would be first to leverage farm buildings' remarkably large rooftop surfaces. From hay storage to garages and barns, many farm buildings have tall, large, uniform rooftops that are perfect for installing solar panels.

將太陽能整合到農場的最簡單方法是先利用農場建築物非常大的屋頂表面。從乾草倉庫到車庫和穀倉，許多農場建築都有又高又大、統一的屋頂，非常適合安裝太陽能板。

Source: X/Twitter

來源：X/推特

While maybe not technically agrivoltaics, this is a first step that should have been taken yesterday.

雖然從技術上來說這可能不是農業光伏，但這是昨天就應該採取的第一步。

This should also be a key component in switching farming away from fossil fuels through a few complementary initiatives that will anyway be required for other forms of agrivoltaics:

這也應該是透過一些補充措施使農業擺脫化石燃料的關鍵組成部分，而其他形式的農業光伏發電無論如何都需要這些舉措：

Farming Power

農業電力

The main issue with mixing farming and solar power generation is that in theory, both are competing for the same resource: sunlight.

混合農業和太陽能發電的主要問題是，理論上，兩者都在爭奪相同的資源：陽光。

Sunlight is after all the energy source of the plants being farmed, be it crops or the grass in a pasture. In a way, farming is already harvesting solar energy, although in the form of edible biomass instead of electricity.

畢竟，陽光是種植植物的能量來源，無論是農作物還是牧場上的草。在某種程度上，農業已經在收穫太陽能，儘管是以可食用生物質而不是電力的形式。

So at first glance, it might seem like a pipe dream. But when digging deeper, it is more complex than just plants needing the sun taken away by the solar panels.

因此乍一看，這似乎是一個白日夢。但當深入挖掘時，它比僅僅需要被太陽能電池板奪走陽光的植物更複雜。

Photoinhibition

光抑制

While it is a convenient simplification, plant photosynthesis can be explained as a simple scheme like

雖然這是一個方便的簡化，但植物光合作用可以解釋為一個簡單的方案，例如

“Input light, water, & CO2 -> output sugars”, the process is actually a very complex one.

“輸入光、水、CO2→輸出糖”，這個過程其實是一個非常複雜的過程。

Something that happens very often in real open-field conditions is a phenomenon called photoinhibition.

在真實的開放場條件下常發生的現象稱為光抑制。

This is when the sunlight is too intense for the plant to absorb, causing the production of damaging radical oxidant molecules. This damages the photosynthetic ability of the plant and reduces crop yields.

此時陽光太強烈，植物無法吸收，導致產生破壞性的自由基氧化劑分子。這會損害植物的光合作用能力並降低作物產量。

Source: Frontiers In Plant Science

資料來源：植物科學前沿

This means that on most summer days, especially in southern

這意味著在大多數夏季，尤其是在南方