Evaluating the influence of different agrivoltaic topologies on PV energy, crop yields and land productivity in a temperate climate

Abstract

Agrivoltaics (AV) is a key technology to meet some of the sustainable development goals. In AV systems, light is the main limiting resource for crop growth. Hence, standard density photovoltaic (PV) designs could be detrimental to crop yields. The goal of this research was to assess the impact of new AV topologies on the land productivity. A solar irradiance and energy yield modelling framework was coupled with a crop model to assess the performance of south (S)-tilted, east-west (EW) vertical, and EW wing bifacial AV systems. For each AV system, continuous straight-line (standard), checkerboard, and dash-line PV arrangements were modelled, and the PV energy, sugar beet and winter wheat yields, and the land productivity assessed. Findings showed that crop yields were enhanced under lower PV densities, with up to 31% increase in winter wheat yields under EW wing checkerboard and dash-line designs compared to the standard layout. Specific energy was enhanced for the half PV densities by 2.5%, 4.2% and 2.3% for the S-tilted, EW vertical and EW wing respectively compared to the standard design. Specific energy yield of the S-tilted system was 25% higher than the EW vertical and 19.3% higher than the EW wing. Highest land equivalent ratio (LER) of 1.2 was obtained for sugar beets under S-tilted standard design. The LER was enhanced for all AV topologies, justifying their implementation and the potential of agrivoltaics to meeet the global energy and food demands.