Environmental stewardship applied research at Olds College of Agriculture & Technology focuses on five main areas of innovation:
Olds College is most active in water quality remediation applied research due to fresh water fast-becoming a limited resource across the prairies and around the world. Researchers are specifically assessing low-cost, but highly effective, water treatment technologies.
Environmental stewardship comes in many forms and plays a pivotal role in almost every applied research project implemented on the Smart Farm.
This project evaluates the economic and environmental benefits of using native wetland plants and floating island technology to treat feedlot runoff water. This effectively improves water quality for irrigation or livestock use by removing excess nutrients, heavy metals, and other contaminants (as well as minimizing the presence of algae blooms).
This project examined the effectiveness of select native wetland species in removing excessive, synthetic plant nutrients — namely nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium — from contaminated potable water in a greenhouse study.
Similar native wetland plant species were used to treat feedlot runoff water in a greenhouse study. The contaminated water was expected to contain excessive nutrients, heavy metals and other contaminants.
With investments from provincial and federal grant funding agencies, private industry, producers, and agricultural and non-agricultural organizations, the College has been working on industrial and agricultural water quality remediation research.
Agrivoltaics is the dual use of land for solar energy generation and agriculture production. It is a fairly new and innovative approach to generating clean, renewable energy from solar power while combining it with agricultural production. The sustainable, optimized dual-use of land for solar energy generation and agricultural production while restoring biodiversity and conserving the environment is the primary focus and benefit of agrivoltaics.
The integration of agriculture and solar energy directly also addresses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Providing a dual-purpose land use that supports both food production and renewable energy generation addresses SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy). It also contributes to SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) by promoting sustainable land use and potentially improving the quality of life in rural areas (Ghosh, 2023).
The Environmental Stewardship team at Olds College Centre for Innovation (OCCI) has developed some agrivoltaics models for research and adoption by solar farms to help them achieve their specific goals.
To know more about our agrivoltaics models and how they can be deployed, fill out our client intake form and we’ll reach out to you.
Agrovoltaics. This model combines solar energy generation with crop production. A wide variety of shade tolerant crops like field crops (grains, oil seeds, pulses, etc.), specialty crops (leafy and vegetables, fruits, etc.) and forage crops (legume and grass mixes) can all be grown under and within solar PV panels using small equipments and innovative production practices.
Rangevoltaics. This model is also referred to as solar grazing in which livestock (cattle, sheep, etc.) are released into the solar facility to graze the native or seeded forage mixes under the panels. The animals feed on the vegetation, enjoy the cool environment provided by the shade of the panels and also help with improving the soil health of the site. Solar feedlot models also fall under this category.
Ecovoltaics. The installation of the solar PV panels causes some disruption to the natural habitat affecting the pollinator habitat and wildlife. Ecovoltaics is an agrivoltaics model that focuses on the restoration of biodiversity, pollinator habitat and wildlife.
Envirovoltaics. The part of the environment that is directly impacted by solar construction is the soil hence altering the soil health. Envirovoltaics is a model that studies the effect of solar PV panel installation and operations on soil health and microclimate variability. This model studies the impact of different solar PV systems on soil health through innovative monitoring tools and also variations in the climate and microclimate created under the panels. Soil health improvement and microclimate optimization strategies are delivered to clients from this model.
Autonomous Agrivoltaics. The use of autonomous equipment for agricultural production is another model being explored. Solar farms already use tracking systems to optimize the solar irradiation, while panels that use certain algorithms to know the amount of light required by different crops are also being tested in research facilities. OCCI is talking with an autonomous company to deploy autonomous seeding and weeding equipment for agrivoltaics.
Socioeconomic Agrivoltaics. This model explores the benefits of agrivoltaics through baseline and adoption surveys, cost-benefit analysis and economic profitability analysis of the different agrivoltaics models.
These models can be deployed at Olds College agrivoltaics demonstration plots, or onsite at the solar farms or farmers’ fields based on the site assessment results and preference of the clients.
Research Manager
Research Technician
Research Associate
Research Associate
Ike Edeogu, P.Eng, M.Sc
Manager - Environmental Stewardship & Crop Research
403.556.4650
iedeogu@oldscollege.ca