Colorado researchers grow saffron on solar panels, double yield and make $60,000

There are no limits to what a well-planned project cannot achieve and researchers in Colorado have proven it right. They have managed to make a rooftop with solar panels produce electricity while also growing the world's most expensive spice and generating extra income.Colorado State University researchers report that saffron, grown beneath solar panels rated at 40% transparency, produced twice as many flowers and twice the dried spice yield as compared to unshaded rooftop plots. The conditions on a green roof – well-drained, nutrient-poor substrates and extreme microclimates – are surprisingly ideal for saffron production. The finding points to a promising use of agrovoltaics, which pairs agriculture with solar electricity generation.A sunlit experimentThe research was conducted at the CSU Spur campus in Denver, where Jennifer Bousselot's team studies planted roofs with and without solar installations. These spaces let researchers investigate how urban rooftops could produce food where farmland remains scarce.