Solar Panels in Cornfields? Experiments Yield Promising Results.

By Clare Fieseler

Sheep, lettuce and peppers are already thriving alongside solar panels on working farms across America — and a group of researchers believes corn could be next.

In the middle of an Indiana cornfield, photovoltaic panels stand on stilts 20 feet high — almost four times higher than most traditional solar arrays.

The first-of-its-kind experiment is at the center of three publications released in the past six months and led by Purdue University, as researchers argue there is a viable path to widespread solar implementation by U.S. corn growers.