Agrivoltaics to optimize farmers' yields—cropwise and energywise

There is no unused arable land on a planet that’s already struggling to support a human population that cleared 8 billion last month, and where roughly 1 million plants and animals are threatened with extinction. The pressure is palpable. In Montreal this week, activists and diplomats are negotiating a biodiversity treaty in an effort to reserve 30 percent of Earth’s surface for wildlife. This increasingly zero-sum competition for resources is what inspired University of California, Davis soil biophysics expert Majdi Abou Najm to start working on a land- and water-saving rethink of both solar energy and agriculture.