Pupils from Leipzig conduct research into agro-photovoltaics together with students and staff from HTWK Leipzig
Which crops can be grown under photovoltaic modules? What effects do plants under photovoltaic modules have on them? From the 2020/2021 school year, pupils from Leipzig's Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium will be investigating these and other questions in working groups. They will be supported by scientists from HTWK Leipzig in cooperation with the Department of Sachunterricht at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO). The project starts on 1 September 2020 and will be funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation for two years.
As part of the project, pupils are to independently develop environmentally friendly and resource-saving strategies based on a real technical example. In doing so, they will draw on findings from current research projects on photovoltaics at the participating institutions and develop these further for agro-photovoltaics. The focus is on analysing the interactions between crops and photovoltaics, for example in terms of competition for land from the agricultural and energy industries or possible positive synergy effects.
"For four years now, we have been enabling pupils from the Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium to investigate their own questions about energy technology in our research laboratories. This sometimes results in completely unexpected solutions. We are therefore very much looking forward to the next two school years," says Prof Mathias Rudolph.
