RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Beyond energy balance in agrivoltaic food production: Emergent crop traits from color selective solar cells
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.03.10.482833
DO 10.1101/2022.03.10.482833
A1 Melodi Charles
A1 Brianne Edwards
A1 Eshwar Ravishankar
A1 John Calero
A1 Reece Henry
A1 Jeromy Rech
A1 Carole Saravitz
A1 Wei You
A1 Harald Ade
A1 Brendan O’Connor
A1 Heike Sederoff
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/03/13/2022.03.10.482833.abstract
AB Semi-transparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs) offer new agrivoltaic opportunities to meet the growing demands for sustainable food production. The tailored absorption/transmission spectrum of ST-OSCs not only impacts the power generated, but also aspects of crop growth, development and responses to the biotic and abiotic environments. The general relationships between these variables are unknown. Here, we grow red oak leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa), a traditional greenhouse crop, under three different ST-OSC filters and observe little overall differences on productivity in response to the altered light exposure. In contrast, several key traits involving nutrient content and nitrogen utilization as well as plant defense against herbivory and pathogens are modified over the controls under select OSCs. Overall, our genomic analysis reveals that lettuce production exhibits beneficial traits under exposure from select ST-OSCs. ST-OSCs integrated into greenhouses are, therefore, not only a promising technology for energy-neutral crop production as previously shown but can deliver benefits beyond those based on energy-balance considerations.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.