Agrivoltaic: How much electricity could photovoltaic greenhouses supply?

Abstract

In regions where the land available is scarce it is of special interest to deploy agrivoltaic systems. The combined use of greenhouses to produce food and energy at the same time increases farmers’ income, converting farming into a more attractive sector. The farming sector could benefit from agrivoltaic, since farmers could profit from a double source of incoming: vegetables and energy. The aim of this research is to establish how relevant agrivoltaic can be in terms of energy production at regional scale. For this purpose, a methodology is developed to: (i) identify greenhouses using cartographic information systems, (ii) estimate how much of these areas could be covered by solar photovoltaic panels without decreasing the crops production, thus, estimating the optimal photovoltaic cover ratio for different type of crops under different solar conditions by developing a novel set of equations and (iii) evaluate the corresponding photovoltaic power and production. This methodology has been applied to one regional practical case, the Canary Islands, and the results are surprising in terms of the potentiality of agrivoltaic, which could cover rates as high as 30% of the annual regional electricity demand depending on, among others, the transmittance value of the greenhouse material and the adequate determination of the cover ratio.