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If you've ever owned a backyard trampoline -or jumped on someone else's- you might have noticed that the grass underneath it is longer and lusher than the grass in the rest of the yard. It's not just that grass isn't getting mowed… in fact, when it does get mowed, you can see the weird effect even better! Instead there's something else -something shadier- going on here. Hi, I'm Kate, and this is MinuteEarth. Plants need sun; it's their source of energy. But too much sun can dry out the soil, overheat a plant,
and overload its photosynthetic machinery, all of which can stunt its growth. Reducing the amount of sun that reaches a plant -by, say, covering it up with a trampoline that lets through only some of the sunlight- helps moisture stay in the soil, keeps temps way cooler, and stabilizes light levels for peak photosynthesis. The result, in many cases? Bigger, happier plants. In backyards, the trampoline effect is a weird quirk. But on farms, it's a potential game-changer. One study found that corn plants produced a bigger harvest under partial cover than in full sun. Another found that partially-shaded tomatoes produced twice as much fruit. And in France, grapes grown under partial cover were sweeter and tastier.
But bigger, better crops weren't the only benefit, because instead of being shaded by giant trampolines -which, admittedly, would have been fun- the plants in these studies were shielded by solar panels; in other words, this setup was ALSO capturing sunlight and turning it into electricity. And remember that nice cool microclimate created by the trampoline effect? This helps keep the solar panels cool, which -for kind-of-complicated physics reasons- increases how much electricity they can produce. So solar panels help plants grow better, and plants help solar panels work better… it sounds like a sun-sational win-win.
Of course, it isn't quite that simple; some sun-craving plants, like raspberries and wheat, don't grow as well when they're shaded. Location matters too; crops in cooler, wetter places benefit less from the trampoline effect than those in hotter, dryer places. And setting up these systems in the first place comes with costs and complications. But researchers have run the numbers, and because farms with solar panels are basically getting double duty out of the land -or at least something close to it- harvesting
solar energy along with our food often makes mathematical -and therefore financial- sense. So even though this is a pretty new idea in farming -there are only about 600 US farms doing it right now- the trampoline effect might eventually help us bounce into a much greener future. The amount of electricity we can generate with solar power and other forms of clean energy is amazing - just look at this chart from the last 25 years. So on September 21st, we're going to celebrate that progress and help push for even more in a series of events around the world: I'm talking rallies, solar installations, parades - all sorts of stuff.
It's called Sun Day, and if you want to learn more about it, or attend an event, or even host your own, please check out Sunday.Earth. Together, we can make the sun rise on our clean energy future. That's Sunday.Earth! See you then.
