Egypt’s farmers are trying an old idea with new hardware: use shade to make scarce water go further.

Two pilot agrivoltaics projects in Egypt are testing how solar panels placed over fields might work in small farming communities and at larger scale. The projects involve a range of funders and partner organisations.

Farmers use the panels to generate electricity and shade crops, which cuts evaporation and eases heat stress. The partner groups and farmers are testing different panel layouts, including a checkerboard pattern that lets more sunlight reach crops than a dense solar farm would.

“There is no perfect guideline on how to get there, so I imagine many projects like ours will be trying out different things,” said Gofran Chowdhury, head of innovation at the renewable energy company 3E, one of the partners in the campaign.

Researchers in other places have reported similar results. In Nevada’s deserts, researchers found the shade’s hydrological protection helped a rare plant thrive. In Colorado, scientists growing crops on rooftops under panels found the crops used a third as much water as plants that were not shaded.

Researchers are also testing transparent solar panels that let light through while still producing power. Different crops are expected to need different setups.

Egypt’s projects are aimed at supporting the crops communities already grow, not replacing them.

“We want to adapt and see what is the community doing right now,” Chowdhury said, “and trying to see if we can support them with that adaptation.”

Organisers will collect data on how the plants and panels perform to help guide agrivoltaics projects elsewhere.

At Habiba Community, which runs a regenerative farm in South Sinai, founder Maged El-Said said it is still too early to know which crops will do best under panels installed in May. One early candidate is watermelon.

“Honestly, it’s growing well for the first time,” El-Said said.

The community is also weighing how farms might adopt agrivoltaics, either individually or in groups. It is also considering who should use the electricity and what it should power.

For now, the electricity is helping run irrigation equipment. It could also potentially power desalination plants to purify brackish water in the region.

“I have the solution that I can have both,” El-Said said. “Well, why not?”

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