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Excerpt from news.vt.edu
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences researchers at the Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center are working with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on a six-year grant to investigate runoff quality and quantity downstream from utility-scale solar sites.
“The study is intended to improve design guidance for modeling and monitoring of solar power sites across Virginia,” said David Sample, professor in biological systems engineering. “This is the first study to rely on runoff data collected in the field during storm events.”
During a storm, rain gathers on the solar panels, then falls to the ground, infiltrating vegetation below and raising this question: Should solar panel sites be considered impervious, such as a parking lot, or pervious, such as a grass field?
