Solarpunk technology

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Technology for a Solar-Punk future.

Airships and hydroponic farms...

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A Vacuum Cleaner Company is SAVING Vertical Farming (youtube.com)

submitted 4 days ago by sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al to c/technology@slrpnk.net

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[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I've always wanted to create a low-tech version of this concept.

The problem (for me) is that many crops like lettuce can't handle full strength summer sunlight. The normal solution is shade cloth, but I always feel like that's just throwing away energy. I'd rather devise a method where rather than having 50% shade cloth over 1 square meter of plants, I somehow split that same amount of light over 2 square meters of plants.

Thats effectively what agrivoltaics do, with some energy taken up by solar panels, but I'd like to sort out a plant-only version that works on a small scale. You could have 2 grow beds stacked on top of each other, and use a one-way mirror and some other optics, but i don't think there's a low tech way to keep the sun tracked.

[–] clucose@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Or you grow salad under bushes.

[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

That is effectively what I do (with "bushes" meaning tall annuals for the most part). The problem there is the salad and bushes are in competition in the soil.

I suppose the smartest method would involve "alley cropping" with the shorter plants in planters.