German farmer invested €1.5 MM to cover his fields with solar panels [video]

I will also lower water requirements since less of it evaporates off, which in turn lowers energy requirements for the farm.

Your question reminded me about this article which talks about something very similar https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230424-how-agrivoltaics...

It's hops, as in beer hops. The leaf shape is very distinct.

The newspiece presents him as a 'Hopfenbauer' which again is german for 'Hops Farmer'.

Yesterday on a train in Germany going to another town we passed by a field where panels, which looked new, were mounted vertically, like open parallel fences, and I realized that the cost drop for solar panels means that they do not need to be mounted optimally to be cost-effective.

The separation between the solar panel fences was wide enough for a tractor, although too narrow for a combine harvester, and my impression was that it is intended to combine electricity generation with harvesting. It was a small field.

Yeah this is great for plants that need or can tolerate some shade, but the vast majority of common food crops need or grow best in full sun.

Still more interesting than Yet Another Programming Language Framework that won't matter after a few years imho. Global energy transition is a once in a lifetime historical event (over decades, admittedly). Different topics for different folks, don't stop being curious. Use the "hide" link liberally to cater to your tastes. There is enough front page for all of us.

This is an entrepreneurial and enterprising community always open to interesting ideas (whether they are solutions, business models, or ingenuity).

So it’s perfectly appropriate for the site as long as it’s novel. As soon as this becomes mainstream then you’re right.

so my expectation is that this is not a profitable thing to do, and it is interesting to confirm or be surprised

What? There are a couple interesting things here from the video. The high cost/investment. The engineering challenges of making the hops (and their weight) work well with the rack structures as well as dealing with wind. And the fact that it's an attempt to use the panels for more than energy generation (eg shade, structure, moisture control).