{"id":4170,"date":"2026-11-13T12:25:33","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T12:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/under-magenta-solar-panels-swedish-broccoli-reaches-normal-size-but-needs-nearly-another-month\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T12:25:35","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T12:25:35","slug":"under-magenta-solar-panels-swedish-broccoli-reaches-normal-size-but-needs-nearly-another-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/under-magenta-solar-panels-swedish-broccoli-reaches-normal-size-but-needs-nearly-another-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Under Magenta Solar Panels, Swedish Broccoli Reaches Normal Size but Needs Nearly Another Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Sweden, researchers from M\u00e4lardalen University grew broccoli beneath magenta-tinted photovoltaic modules during the summer of 2024. The heads harvested were on par with those from a plot under full sun. The trial rekindles the debate over agrivoltaics, which aims to share a single field between crops and solar panels.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Published in Cell Reports Physical Science in October 2026, the Swedish study compares two levels of transparency<\/h2>\n<p>The findings appear in the journal <strong>Cell Reports Physical Science<\/strong>, volume 7, issue October 2026. The article is signed by Silvia Ma Lu, the first author, and six coauthors, including <strong>Pietro Elia Campana<\/strong>, a specialist in energy systems. All are affiliated with M\u00e4lardalen University, based in V\u00e4ster\u00e5s and Eskilstuna.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">The Atlantic\u2019s radioactive drums are leaking, but decay physics explains modest measured releases<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The test site is located at K\u00e4rrbo Pr\u00e4stg\u00e5rd, a farm in the country\u2019s central region. The researchers installed two square arrays, each 20 meters on a side. The first allows about <strong>50% of the light to pass<\/strong>, the second about 70%, while a third plot without a roof serves as a reference.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cadmium telluride cut into thin ribbons transmits to the foliage the red and blue wavelengths upon which photosynthesis depends<\/h2>\n<p>These modules rest on a thin layer of <strong>cadmium telluride<\/strong>, a <strong>photovoltaic pathway<\/strong> already in industrial use. The opaque cells form spaced ribbons on a tinted glass sheet. Consequently, the proportion of active surface directly fixes the balance between electricity production and light transmitted to the ground.<\/p>\n<p>The magenta tint is not merely aesthetic. Indeed, chlorophyll mainly absorbs red and blue wavelengths, while it poorly utilizes green. The filter therefore removes primarily that portion of the spectrum, which is of little use to the plant. Furthermore, the cadmium telluride cells themselves also poorly harness these wavelengths.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">Oklo\u2019s natural reactors kept plutonium for two billion years, a lesson for geological storage<\/span><\/section>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A maturity delayed by 25 days, offset by a light-use efficiency multiplied by 4.5 under the densest roof<\/h2>\n<p>At harvest, the broccoli heads grown under the two coverings reached a size comparable to the control. However, the shaded plants matured about 25 days later. For a farmer, this shift weighs on the harvest calendar and crop rotation.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, measurements reveal a better utilization of the photons received. Under the most opaque roof, light-use efficiency increases by a factor of <strong>4.5<\/strong> compared with full sun. In other words, the plant partly compensates for reduced illumination by extracting more from every available ray.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">With around 225 megawatt-hours per hectare, the energy compromise remains to be confirmed over several seasons<\/h2>\n<p>On the electricity side, the colored modules delivered nearly <strong>225 MWh per hectare<\/strong> over the growing period. That is about 100 MWh less than standard panels of the same area. Therefore, profitability hinges on energy price, the value of the vegetables, and the cost of installations.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">Graphene, isolated with tape in 2004, held its laboratory records, but not all of its promises<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The authors also point to a <strong>methodological limit<\/strong>. Indeed, the trial does not yet allow separating the effect of color from the simple <strong>reduction in brightness<\/strong>. Moreover, the tested modules are prototypes. Above all, a single growing season is not sufficient to validate the method, so additional campaigns will compare several colors and several crops.<\/p>\n<p>These nuances sketch a rather targeted use. Thus, greenhouse roofs or community gardens seem better suited than vast cereal crops. Magenta thus does not settle the conflict between energy and food, but it shows that a carefully chosen spectral filtering can reduce the agronomic cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2732,2730,2734,2733,925,2125,2512,665,2731],"class_list":["post-4170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-broccoli","tag-magenta","tag-month","tag-normal","tag-panels","tag-reaches","tag-size","tag-solar","tag-swedish","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4172,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170\/revisions\/4172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}