The Walkman, Madonna, and the mullet – the 80s brought to life its fair share of innovation. However, there is an often-overlooked contribution of this decade even more revolutionary than Pac-Man. The idea, which came on the scene in a journal article published in 1981 by two German scientists, Adolf Goetzberger and Armin Zastrow, is called agrivoltaics. “In this paper,” they wrote, “we propose a configuration of a…photovoltaic power plant, which allows for additional agricultural use of the land involved.” In other words, placing solar panels above crops – in the footprint of a solar cell, growing strawberries, squash, and more. The idea may not have seemed ground-breaking when the two scientists quietly conducted their research in West Germany, but fast forward 40 years, and their concept is integral to solving the crisis of food security and the energy transition.
