Greenhouses like these in the Netherland's Westland municipality grow a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, and flowers.

Solar Energy
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Agriculture inherently seeks to optimize the capture of solar energy, and thereby plant productivity. Techniques such as timed planting cycles, tailored row orientation, staggered heights between rows, and the mixing of plant varieties can improve crop yields.^[18][19] While sunlight is generally considered a plentiful resource, there are exceptions which highlight the importance of solar energy to agriculture. During the short growing seasons of the Little Ice Age, French and English farmers employed fruit walls to maximize the collection of solar energy. These walls acted as thermal masses and accelerated ripening by keeping plants warm. Early fruit walls were built perpendicular to the ground with a south facing orientation but over time sloping walls were developed to make better use of sunlight. In 1699, Nicolas Fatio de Duillier even suggested using a tracking mechanism which could pivot to follow the Sun.^[20] Solar energy is also used in many areas of agriculture aside from growing crops. Applications include pumping water, drying crops, brooding chicks, and drying chicken manure.^[21][22]

Greenhouses control the use of solar heat and light to grow plants in controlled environments, enabling year-round production and the growth of specialty crops and other plants not naturally suited to the local climate. Primitive greenhouses were first used during Roman times to grow cucumbers year-round for the Roman emperor Tiberius.^[23] The first modern greenhouses were built in Europe in the 16th century to conserve exotic plants brought back from explorations abroad.^[24] Greenhouses remain an important part of horticulture today, while plastic transparent materials have also been used to similar effect in polytunnels and row covers.

See also: Greenhouse

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