Integrated Innovations

Small farms in Japan are struggling to survive, but two new farms are experimenting with solar panels and mushrooms growing underneath them. The farms, at two location in northeastern Japan, will produce a combined 4,000 kilowatts of solar power that will be sold to a local utility, while the mushroom farms will yield an annual 40 tones of cloud-ear mushrooms, a crop that is typically imported from China.

These solar farms in Japan have a secret hiding under them: mushrooms. https://buff.ly/2mqevlh
[Photo: Sustainergy]

In the U.S., researchers at the University of Massachusetts are exploring the possibility of growing plants like kale, broccoli, and Swiss chard under rows of nine-foot-high solar panels. [excerpted from Fast Company newsletter.]

 

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