At Colorado State University’s Western Colorado Research Center, a new experimental system has recently been installed that will study how different types of solar arrays installed above its vineyard affect the grapes below and whether these systems can work together to produce both energy and a successful crop.

Colorado State University professor Horst Caspari explained that solar power requires a large amount of land and that land is often productive for agriculture. In order to preserve agricultural land while also producing power, some producers are going with “agrivoltaic” systems — a combination of agriculture and photovoltaics (solar panels).

What Caspari is interested in studying is how different types of panel arrangements and how they are managed affects the grapes.

“We will b

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