The SEED Campus’s two-acre solar array, in addition to being a key sustainability feature, is an evolving research laboratory. Earlier this spring, the Davey Institute seeded new vegetation under the arrays in hopes of identifying the best practices for establishing and maintaining it.
“This isn’t going away, solar energy,” said Davey Institute turf specialist Zane Raudenbush. “There’s a lot of opportunity for Davey to help find the sites that solar panels will be successful and be a technical liaison when they’re doing construction – thinking about traffic and relieving soil compaction – and maybe even advising to construct arrays in ways that make maintenance more user-friendly.”
Showcasing Low-Maintenance Options to Clients
That means, among many things, establishing low-growth, low-maintenance vegetation quickly after construction to minimize erosion, and grading land so that it can be easily maintained through new technology like autonomous mowers.
Under about half of the SEED Campus panels, Davey planted a custom blend of shade-tolerant grass that won’t require mowing. Raudenbush and his colleagues will be exploring ways to prevent weed growth and erosion and showcase the best practices they learn to clients.
“We can communicate that maybe you need a little bit more investment upfront to prep the soil properly and seed it,” Raudenbush said, “but over the lifetime of the array, it can pay for itself tenfold.”
Solar Fields: A Place for Agriculture?
For the other half of the plots, we’re collaborating with Ohio State University to explore agrivoltaics – the dual use of land for agriculture and solar energy.
The collaboration began as Dr. V. Ryan Haden, Associate Professor at Ohio State, a former colleague of Raudenbush and Dan Herms, Vice President and General Manager of the Davey Institute, was looking to explore the concept around the same time Davey was installing its SEED Campus solar field.
“You can imagine, people and organizations aren’t always going to turn over their solar arrays to let research be done,” Raudenbush said, “but that’s what the SEED Campus was built on. It was good timing and alignment.”
The Ohio State study focuses mostly on the production of sod for the turf industry and perennial forage grass and legumes for livestock feed. For the forage crops, Haden and his team selected species commonly grown in the region that may have shade tolerance, given the variable light conditions beneath solar arrays.
Raudenbush is excited about this partnership and what future collaborations at the SEED Campus may mean for Davey.
“These collaborations improve our visibility within the industry and demonstrate our commitment to providing solutions that enhance the green industry as whole,” he said.
