太阳能农田？

太阳能正在迅速成为主要能源。太阳能市场在过去几年中大幅增长，预计到 2030 年美国的复合年增长率仍将达到 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.

太阳能正在迅速成为主要能源。太阳能市场在过去几年中大幅增长，预计到 2030 年美国的复合年增长率仍将达到 15.4%。

Source: Grand View Research

资料来源：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.

与全球太阳能增长相比，西方国家对太阳能的采用实际上相形见绌，而中国处于领先地位，因为中国负责的太阳能发电项目管道比世界其他国家的总和还要多。

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.

中国逐年增加可再生能源装机容量，2023年至2024年间太阳能装机量超过前三年的总和，也超过2023年全球装机总量。

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.

这使得这家亚洲巨头有望在年底前实现 1,200 吉瓦的风能和太阳能装机容量，比政府目标提前六年。

Source: Energy Wind Down Media

来源：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”.

这导致《经济学人》等重要出版物将其称为“新时代”。我们在“太阳能时代——人类光明的未来”中探讨了哪些新技术将使其成为现实。

Source: The Economist

资料来源：经济学人

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.

半导体制造的进步和太阳能电池板生产规模经济的不断增长导致光伏成本稳步下降，自 1990 年以来，光伏成本已便宜了 30 倍。因此，光伏技术现在在太阳能行业占据主导地位。

Source: EIA

来源：这里

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，太阳能开始遇到一个问题。这是因为从土地使用情况来看，太阳能的能量密度相对较低。

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.

事实上，就土地利用而言，它是效率最低的能源之一，只有同样碳中性的风能、水力发电和生物质能得分更差。

Source: Wouter Beel Gravendeel

资料来源：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.

这导致农田或自然栖息地被太阳能电池板覆盖，用于公用事业规模的太阳能发电场。因此，虽然这减少了碳排放，但它也带来了许多不必要的副作用，从自然栖息地的破坏到侵蚀的风险，特别是在山区。

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

例如，在中国福建省，您可以看到整个山丘都覆盖着太阳能电池板。

Source: The Atlantic

资料来源：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.

这是一个日益严重的问题，因为我们已经每年失去大量耕地，每年多达 1 亿公顷。这些损失的最大因素不是太阳能发电场，而是侵蚀、荒漠化、城市化、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，这并不意味着解决一个问题（碳排放）应该成为解决另一个重大问题（耕地流失）的问题。

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.

有些解决方案是显而易见的，例如利用屋顶，尤其是工业建筑，但也包括住宅建筑。利用沙漠土地可能是另一种选择，但这些土地也是脆弱的生态系统，清除灰尘会消耗大量当地稀有的水资源。

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.

这些可以成为解决方案的一部分，但要使太阳能完全取代化石燃料，它需要在几十年内保持两位数的增长。土地使用将成为一个问题。

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

因此，最好的解决方案是混合农业和电力生产，使用一种称为农业光伏（农业+光伏）的方法。

Source: Dezeen

来源：Dezeen

Farm Buildings

农场建筑

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.

将太阳能整合到农场的最简单方法是首先利用农场建筑物非常大的屋顶表面。从干草仓库到车库和谷仓，许多农场建筑都有又高又大、统一的屋顶，非常适合安装太阳能电池板。

Source: X/Twitter

来源：X/推特

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

虽然从技术上来说这可能不是农业光伏，但这是昨天就应该采取的第一步。

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:

这也应该是通过一些补充举措使农业摆脱化石燃料的关键组成部分，而其他形式的农业光伏发电无论如何都需要这些举措：

Farming Power

农业电力

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

混合农业和太阳能发电的主要问题是，理论上，两者都在争夺相同的资源：阳光。

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.

毕竟，阳光是种植植物的能量来源，无论是农作物还是牧场上的草。在某种程度上，农业已经在收获太阳能，尽管是以可食用生物质而不是电力的形式。

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，这似乎是一个白日梦。但当深入挖掘时，它比仅仅需要被太阳能电池板夺走阳光的植物更复杂。

Photoinhibition

光抑制

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

虽然这是一个方便的简化，但植物光合作用可以解释为一个简单的方案，例如

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

“输入光、水、CO2→输出糖”，这个过程其实是一个非常复杂的过程。

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

在真实的开放场条件下经常发生的现象称为光抑制。

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.

此时阳光太强烈，植物无法吸收，导致产生破坏性的自由基氧化剂分子。这会损害植物的光合作用能力并降低作物产量。

Source: Frontiers In Plant Science

资料来源：植物科学前沿

This means that on most summer days, especially in southern

这意味着在大多数夏季，尤其是在南方