ETF Analyst

Solar Power vs Farmland: How Agrivoltaics Offers a SolutionAt its core, farming and other forms of land cultivation are harvesting the energy of the sun through plants, to turn it into food and other useful organic products like wool, wood, leather, etc.Recently, a new way to “farm” the power of the Sun has emerged with photovoltaic panels, directly converting sunlight into electricity. It has of course the potential to revolutionize our industrial societies, and could mark the beginning of a new era, as we discussed in “The Solar Age – A Bright Future To Mankind”.And while we are far from having replaced all fossil fuel energy sources, the pace of change has been accelerating, notably thanks to China.China has been ramping up its renewable energy capacity year on year, installing more solar power between 2023 and 2024 than the previous three years combined, and more than the total global capacity installed in 2023.This has put the Asian giant on track to achieve an installed wind and solar capacity of 1,200 GW by the end of 2025, putting it six years ahead of the government goal.However, the more solar power we produce, the more surface is required, as ultimately, solar energy is relatively low in density, needing massive surfaces to do what a gas, coal, or nuclear power plant can achieve on a smaller footprint.This can put solar energy in a direct collision course with the traditional way of harvesting the sun: farming. And indeed, transforming crops and pastures, or cutting down forests to replace them with unproductive solar farms seems like a poor method of what should be an ecological/green technology.It also creates increasing resistance from local residents, who often bemoan the esthetic of massive solar fields.As solar generation grows, this tension between field and solar farms is likely to keep growing.Luckily, agrivoltaics, a method merging together agriculture and photovoltaics has been experimented with for many years now. We previously explained the technical aspect of how it works in “Agrivoltaics To Merge “Real” Farms With Solar Farms”.Three researchers at the University of Bonn (Germany) have studied the perception of agrivoltaics by the broader public, the willingness to pay for power generated this way, and if the type of crop cultivated changes this perception.They published their results in the scientific journal Land Use Policy1, under the title “Agrivoltaics increases public acceptance of solar energy production on agricultural land”.What Is Agrivoltaics? Basics and Benefits ExplainedThe key idea of agrivoltaics is to install solar panels in such a way that normal farming activity can still be done on the same land. This can take many forms, with usually more spacing between the solar panels than in a traditional solar farm:Higher frames to cultivate crops under the solar panels.More distant rows of solar panels, to cultivate the space between them.Husbandry of cattle or other grazing animals, with the grass growing at the feet of the panels feeding them.Using the panel frames as trellis or support for climbing plants like vines.Mounting vertically bifacial solar panels, to minimize the surface area used, and facilitate the passing of farming machinery, like tractors and combines.This creates a very diverse array of agrivoltaics solutions, but we can define it for example with the EU's Common Agricultural Policy guidelines for agrivoltaics, which states that a total of 85 % of an agrivoltaics area must remain available for agricultural use.Overall, agrivoltaic methods are expected to result in an identical productivity of solar panels on a per-panel basis, but require more land for the same electricity production. It also somewhat reduces the food production per acre/hectare, which can be compensated for the farmer by the increased revenues from solar electricity production.In addition, some unexpected side effects of solar panels can actually help crops or animals to be more productive in specific conditions.“They sometimes also create synergies

Who's the dumb money now? As $74 billion flowed out of equity mutual funds and ETFs in April, retail investors bought the dip and participated in the fastest snapback in the SP 500 (^GSPC) since 1982. Retail investor inflows have surpassed $50 billion since April 8, according to a May 15 note from JPMorgan quantitative strategist Emma Wu. Although the pace of purchases slowed from "dip-buying weeks," Wu noted on Thursday that retail investors still bought $7.5 billion in equities over the past week. "I have to give retail a back-clap because they had been buying the dip all the way through," RBC Capital Markets derivatives strategist Amy Wu Silverman said on Catalysts (see video above). "It was really the institutional investor base that massively de-grossed [i.e., reduced exposure to financial markets]. So they're the ones who actually have to catch up right now." Data from investing platform Public indicates that investors who bought the dip between April 3 and May 9 earned a nearly 12% return

Reuters Bill Smead advises against investing in the SP 500 as momentum fuels the rally. "I don't trust the SP 500 farther than I can throw it," Smead told BI. Smead's fund has underperformed recently, but he's enjoyed long-term success. Bill Smead was driving around Northern Alabama on Thursday, pitching potential clients on why it's an optimal time to buy into his Smead Value Fund (SMVLX). He knows it may not be an easy sell. His energy and homebuilder holdings have gotten hammered recently, and the fund has had a rough 12 months