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Charles M, Edwards B, Ravishankar E, Calero J, Henry R, Rech J, Saravitz C, You W, Ade H, O’Connor B, Sederoff H. Emergent molecular traits of lettuce and tomato grown under wavelength-selective solar cells. Front Plant Sci 2023; 14:1087707. [PMID: 36909444 PMCID: PMC9999377 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1087707] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2022] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
The integration of semi-transparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs) in greenhouses offers new agrivoltaic opportunities to meet the growing demands for sustainable food production. The tailored absorption/transmission spectra of ST-OSCs impacts the power generated as well as crop growth, development and responses to the biotic and abiotic environments. To characterize crop responses to ST-OSCs, we grew lettuce and tomato, traditional greenhouse crops, under three ST-OSC filters that create different light spectra. Lettuce yield and early tomato development are not negatively affected by the modified light environment. Our genomic analysis reveals that lettuce production exhibits beneficial traits involving nutrient content and nitrogen utilization while select ST-OSCs impact regulation of flowering initiation in tomato. These results suggest that ST-OSCs integrated into greenhouses are not only a promising technology for energy-neutral, sustainable and climate-change protected crop production, but can deliver benefits beyond energy considerations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melodi Charles
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Brianne Edwards
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Eshwar Ravishankar
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Organic and Carbon Electronics Laboratories, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - John Calero
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Reece Henry
- Department of Physics and Organic and Carbon Electronics Laboratories, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Jeromy Rech
- Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
| | - Carole Saravitz
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Wei You
- Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
| | - Harald Ade
- Department of Physics and Organic and Carbon Electronics Laboratories, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Brendan O’Connor
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Organic and Carbon Electronics Laboratories, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Heike Sederoff
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
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