Are the soils degraded by the photovoltaic power plant?

Abstract

New photovoltaic panels are installed on agricultural land every day and yet their effect on the quality of the soil has not yet been fully verified. Unfortunately, there are not many scientific works that focus on the effect of photovoltaic panels on real soil in real conditions. The presented work intended to establish the basic principles through which the placement of photovoltaic panels changes the quality of the surrounding soil. Since the soil is a very complex system, six basic soil properties were worked on, which were labeled as soil ‘master properties’ in the work by Kuzyakov and Zamanian. It was found that the photovol power plants can have a positive effect on the soil under certain conditions. According to our conclusions, it can be assumed that the placement of PV panels will have a positive effect on a number of soil properties, we can mainly expect an increase in the stability of soil aggregates, an increase in the content of organic matter and an increased development of the microbial community.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Soil
• soil biota
• photovoltaic power plant
• photovoltaic panel

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• Manuel Tejada, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain

SUBJECTS:

• Agriculture & Environmental Sciences
• Agriculture and Food
• Soil Sciences

Disclosure statement

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Headings

• So far, no attention has been paid to the effect of solar panels on the soil

• Based on the general laws in the soil, solar panels can increase the quality of the soil

• Solar panels enable the regeneration of soil biota

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Helena Dvořáčková

Helena Dvořáčková co-owner of the company pedologie Dvořáček, s.r.o., focuses mainly on the impact of anthropogenic activity and climate change on the microbial component of soil. She received her Ph.D degree at the Mendelian University in Brno, where she dealt with the issue of biohallow and its microbial revival. Currently, he continues to research the impact of human activity on the soil, especially with regard to the microbial component of the soil.

Jan Dvořáček

Jan Dvořáček is the co-owner of the pedology company Dvořáček s.r.o., where he deals with the physical and chemical properties of soil. His professional expertise is in the field of soil classification and the impacts of anthropogenic activity and climate change on soil. He received his Ph.D degree at the Mendel University in Brno, where he devoted himself to the use of biological methods for archaeological research. He is currently studying anthropogenic impacts on soil and mitigating these negative impacts.

Vítězslav Vlček

Vítězslav Vlček, PhD. is a researcher at Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic. His focus is soil science: soil classification and research of the function and influence of some fractions of soil organic matter on soil quality.