  **Title**: Energy in the North - Glenna Gannon
**Date**: October, 15 2025
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Glenna Gannon


00;00;00;04 - 00;00;07;02 [Glenna Gannon] in about 75ft of potatoes, we saw that the yield was, about 20% different,

00;00;07;02 - 00;00;16;14 [Amanda Byrd] This week on energy in the North, I spoke with Glenna Gannon, assistant research professor at UAF Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension. Growing a vegetable garden is often a rite of passage for 乐虎直播ns during the summer months. Harnessing the energy of the sun to also generate electricity is growing in popularity. Glenna is leading a project with Michelle Wilber and a team of researchers to see how those two activities work together. I began the conversation by asking Glenna to describe the project that they're working on.

00;00;37;03 - 00;02;05;07 [Glenna Gannon] This project, started in 2023, and we were trying to identify the feasibility of agrivoltaics at high latitudes. And so really what we were interested in is looking at a number of different crops grown within solar panels to see, how they responded to the microclimates within the array. And so this year we grew potatoes, kale and spinach. And the reason we chose those crops was because, well, potatoes are a high value crop for 乐虎直播, and a very common crop, and then research shows that leafy greens perform well within agrivoltaic systems at other latitudes. And so we were interested to see if that was the case here. But also, my personal interest, when we were writing this proposal, one of them was to identify whether, you know, the shadow of the solar array could slow down things like bolting for crops like spinach that have a tendency to bolt quickly, during our long photo period or, a lot of sunlight in the summer is another way to say that. And then kale is, a really, tolerant crop. And so we, know that it does well in shade systems as well as full sun. And we are looking at that as a potential crop for being successful in the array and evaluating that. What we're interested in is how much of a micro climate effect is actually being imposed upon the plants that are grown in that array? And how much within that space is what we might consider more conventional growing space, full sun or part sun, as if you had maybe a couple trees or something shading your growing area.

00;02;05;07 - 00;02;10;10 [Amanda Byrd] So I guess the big question on everyone's mind, how did the crops grow within those solar panels?

00;02;10;10 - 00;03;49;03 [Glenna Gannon] We are still working on results since we just got harvested last week, but we're already starting to see some interesting indicators within the plant physiology and the harvestable yield data. You know, there really is a micro-climate effect, within about the first, oh, from the drip line. So back of the panels, you know, 5 to 8ft. We do see that there are some slight differences in yields. To give you an example, in about 75ft of potatoes, we saw that the yield was about 20% different in those two first rows as compared to the full sun rows. What that means is, like a 20 pound difference or so in yield. And while that is significant, it's not so significant that we're saying that agrivoltaics as in the crops grown within the shade portion of the voltaic system, it's not so dramatic that it's not viable, that it's not feasible. And in fact, from this year of growing, if I were to have many future years to research these systems, what I would be trying to do is figuring out how to optimize that system. So you're growing your sun loving plants are heat loving plants closer to the center of that 50ft row space. And maybe some plants like kale that seemed to be really not impacted by the solar array, by that microclimate in the heavy shade zone, closer to the array and things that might benefit from having a little more shade, such as the spinach, the kale, the lettuces, things like that that really don't like all of that, PAR so photosyntheticly active radiation. Yeah, those are, those are the kinds of things we're seeing, we are seeing that the plants behave a little bit differently in those areas, but really in terms of the impact to yields. So what we are able to grow, I'm hopeful.

00;03;49;03 - 00;03;55;03 [Amanda Byrd] Glenna Gannon is an assistant research professor at UAF's Institute of agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension. And I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for the 乐虎直播 Center for Energy and Power. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep.