What is agrivoltaics & how does it work?

The term agrivoltaics is a combination of the words agriculture and photovoltaics. It refers to the sharing of agricultural activity and solar panels on the same land. Crops and solar panels share the incoming sunlight so that the landowner benefits from energy generation in addition to agricultural production.

Should agrivoltaic planners put solar over a farm?

Or farm first, and put solar over it?” If farming is the main priority, she says, then the solar panels may need to be spaced farther apart and possibly be raised higher. Such changes could potentially limit how much electricity those farm fields generate. And agrivoltaic planners may need to treat the soil, Macknick says.

Could agrivoltaic farming be a solution?

Agrivoltaic farming could be a solution to not just one but both of these problems. It uses the shaded space underneath solar panels to grow crops. This increases land-use efficiency, as it lets solar farms and agriculture share ground, rather than making them compete against one another.

Can agrivoltaic systems solve our energy needs?

Researchers at Oregon State University have calculated that combining solar PV systems with agricultural production could solve 20% of our energy needs in the United States. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems have found that agrivoltaic systems have increased farmland productivity by 60% even with wheat.

How agrivoltaic systems can help farmers in East Africa?

Elsewhere, agrivoltaic systems in East Africa are allowing farmers to make better use of land that was previously seen as unviable. An Agrivoltaic farming project in Kenya is using solar panels held several metres off the ground, with gaps in between them. The shade from the panels protects vegetables from heat stress and water loss.

Can agrivoltaics be used in agriculture?

The integration of PV in agricultural activities represents a permanent challenge, because energy performance sometimes comes into conflict with the optimal development of crops as well as with the preservation of the landscape. As a result, agrivoltaics systems have very distinct production models from conventional PV installations.