by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 16, 2025
Mounting photo voltaic panels above crop fields can enhance working situations for farmworkers in addition to produce meals and electrical energy on the identical land, in line with analysis to be introduced on the AGU 2025 Annual Assembly in New Orleans. Employee interviews and area measurements point out that agrivoltaic programs present shade, scale back publicity to excessive warmth, and assist farms keep away from situations related to harmful warmth stress.
The research focuses on agrivoltaics, by which photo voltaic arrays are put in over or alongside crops in order that power and agriculture share the identical acreage. Farmworkers reported that the panel constructions give them entry to shade throughout harvesting and different duties, lowering how typically they need to work in direct solar. They described feeling much less fatigued on the finish of the day when capable of rotate duties beneath the panels and relaxation in shaded areas.
Lead researcher Talitha Neesham-McTiernan of the College of Arizona drew on 4 years of fieldwork on agrivoltaic farms, a lot of it carried out throughout scorching Arizona summers. She noticed that each scientists and laborers routinely scheduled essentially the most strenuous duties for occasions once they might work beneath the photo voltaic arrays. “It simply gave the impression to be one thing that folks in these programs have been doing, however no person within the analysis space was speaking about it,” she mentioned.
Warmth poses a serious occupational threat in agriculture, the place employees are estimated to be 35 occasions extra more likely to die from heat-related sickness than folks in non-agricultural jobs. Neesham-McTiernan famous that local weather change is anticipated to accentuate this threat, growing the worth of sensible methods that may restrict warmth stress within the area. “[Agrivoltaics] is not a one-size-fits-all resolution,” she mentioned. “It could’t be used in all places. However with the specter of warmth, we’d like a catalog of how we are able to defend farmworkers. With out them, we won’t feed ourselves. Defending them and their our bodies needs to be paramount to everybody.”
Farmworkers pointed to a number of particular advantages from working beneath the panels. They reported that shade from the arrays diminished solar publicity throughout peak noon hours and that with the ability to step out and in of shaded rows helped them handle warmth by the day. Neesham-McTiernan recounted one employee’s description of how the association left them feeling much less exhausted by the top of a shift, which in flip affected their power ranges exterior work.
The shaded constructions additionally assist maintain ingesting water cooler, which is essential for stopping warmth sickness. “They’ll pop their bottles beneath the panels they usually keep cool all day,” Neesham-McTiernan mentioned, “slightly than it being, as one of many farmworkers described it, like ingesting tea.” Staff emphasised that entry to chill water all through the workday supported their means to maintain working safely in excessive temperatures.
Past shade and water, the panel helps themselves supply a bodily help throughout lengthy hours within the area. “Each farmworker mentioned one profit was with the ability to lean in opposition to the beams that maintain up the panels, simply to take the load off a bit,” Neesham-McTiernan famous. She mentioned these small ergonomic benefits wouldn’t seem in sensor knowledge alone however clearly affected each day consolation.
To quantify the thermal surroundings, the analysis staff put in sensors that recorded air temperature, humidity, wind velocity and photo voltaic radiation on agrivoltaic farms and on comparable open fields. They used these knowledge to calculate moist bulb globe temperature, a composite heat-stress index generally used to establish hazardous out of doors working situations. Evaluating the 2 settings allowed the staff to hyperlink employee experiences with goal modifications in environmental stress.
Measurements confirmed that agrivoltaic fields might decrease moist bulb globe temperature by as much as 5.5 levels Celsius, or about 10 levels Fahrenheit, relative to open fields. Neesham-McTiernan estimated that this drop can mark the distinction between situations the place work should cease and situations the place employees can proceed with mandated relaxation breaks, similar to pausing each hour. She burdened that when these marginal beneficial properties accumulate over a full workday, a rising season and a profession, their influence on well being and productiveness turns into substantial.
The research additionally in contrast employees’ perceptions with sensor readings throughout totally different elements of the farms and occasions of day. In some circumstances, members and devices didn’t absolutely agree on which areas felt hottest or most snug. Neesham-McTiernan argued that assessing occupational warmth stress requires each physiological and experiential info, as a result of metrics alone can not seize how folks truly really feel and performance throughout extended out of doors labor.
Neesham-McTiernan plans to increase the analysis to farms in different local weather zones to find out whether or not agrivoltaic heat-mitigation advantages maintain in numerous environmental situations. Future work might embrace nearer monitoring of physiological indicators and well being outcomes, aiming to hyperlink the noticed microclimate modifications beneath photo voltaic panels on to employee well being metrics. The undertaking highlights thermal consolation and security as central components in evaluating agrivoltaic deployment, alongside power output and crop efficiency.
Analysis Report:Farmworker experiences reveal heat mitigation advantages of agrivoltaics
Associated Hyperlinks
American Geophysical Union
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