Agrivoltaic Systems Design and Assessment: A Critical Review, and a Descriptive Model towards a Sustainable Landscape Vision (Three-Dimensional Agrivoltaic Patterns)

Creating wildlife habitat using artificial structures: a review of their efficacy and potential use in solar farms

The biodiversity crisis is exacerbated by a growing human population modifying nearly three-quarters of the Earth's land surface area for anthropogenic uses. Habitat loss and modification represent the largest threat to biodiversity and finding ways to offset species decline has been a significant undertaking for conservation. Landscape planning and conservation strategies can enhance habitat suitability for biodiversity in human-modified landscapes. Artificial habitat structures such as artificial reefs, nest boxes, chainsaw hollows, artificial burrows, and artificial hibernacula have all been successfully implemented to improve species survival in human-modified and fragmented landscapes. As the global shift towards renewable energy sources continues to rise, the development of photovoltaic systems is growing exponentially. Large-scale renewable projects, such as photovoltaic solar farms have large space requirements and thus have the potential to displace local wildlife. We discuss the feasibility of 'conservoltaic systems' - photovoltaic systems that incorporate elements tailored specifically to enhance wildlife habitat suitability and species conservation. Artificial habitat structures can potentially lessen the impacts of industrial development (e.g., photovoltaic solar farms) through strategic landscape planning and an understanding of local biodiversity requirements to facilitate recolonization.

Techno-economic and life cycle assessment of agrivoltaic system (AVS) designs

Land use competition between agricultural activities and ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment has increased worldwide attention to hybrid agriculture, and PV systems known as agrivoltaic systems (AVS) in efforts to increase the efficiency of energy and food production and minimize the land use competition. However, little is known about AVS's economic feasibility and environmental tradeoffs. Here we aim to evaluate the techno-economic and environmental impacts of four AVS configurations (full density, half density, mono-axial tracking, and bi-axial tracking) and compare their performance against PV-only systems. We used the life cycle revenue generated from a hectare of land area ($/ha) as a functional unit of our analysis. We found that all AVS configurations outperformed PV-only systems in the economic feasibility assessment, where bi-axial tracking was the best-performing AVS. Further, we developed a case scenario for agricultural farmers to determine the minimum selling price of electricity required for AVS to compete with the economic performance of crop-only farms. We found that the AVS designs require additional incentives (2¢ - 6¢ per kWh of electricity generation) to be as competitive as the crop-only farms. The life cycle environmental assessment demonstrated that the AVS has better environmental performance than PV-only systems, with ∼15-55 % less environmental impacts per functional unit. On average, electricity generation accounts for ∼80 % of AVS environmental impacts, while food production and water demand account for ∼20 %. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis conducted on various uncertain parameters, such as crop yield, water demand, electricity selling price, crop selling prices, discount, and inflation rates, while varying these parameters across broader ranges, indicates that AVS designs become a more economically and environmentally sustainable alternative over PV-only systems in the majority (>66 %) of the data analyzed.

Design and Performance Analysis of Foldable Solar Panel for Agrivoltaics System

This study investigates the use of a foldable solar panel system equipped with a dynamic tracking algorithm for agrivoltaics system (AVS) applications. It aims to simultaneously meet the requirements for renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. The design focuses on improving solar energy capture while facilitating crop growth through adjustable shading. The results show that foldable panels, controlled by the tracking algorithm, significantly outperform fixed panels in energy efficiency, achieving up to a 15% gain in power generation and uniform power generation throughout the day. Despite the presence of shadows of adjacent panels in the early morning and late evening, the system's effectiveness in creating microclimates for diverse crops demonstrates its substantial value. The foldable design not only protects crops from adverse climate conditions across different seasons but also generates energy efficiently. This demonstrates a step forward in sustainable land use and food security.

Solar Energy in Urban Planning: Lesson Learned and Recommendations from Six Italian Case Studies

This paper presents the results of the analysis conducted on six case studies related to solar energy integration in urban and rural environments located on the Italian territory. The analysis has been carried out within the Subtask C—Case Studies and Action Research of the International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Program Task 51 “Solar Energy in Urban Planning”. Three different environments hosting active and passive solar energy systems (existing urban areas, new urban areas, and agricultural/rural areas) have been investigated to attain lessons learned and recommendations. Findings suggest that (a) it is important to consider solar energy from the early stages of the design process onwards to achieve satisfactory levels of integration; (b) a higher level of awareness regarding solar potential at the beginning of a project permits acting on its morphology, achieving the best solution in terms of active and passive solar gains; (c) when properly designed, photovoltaic systems can act as characterizing elements and as a distinctive architectural material that is able to valorize the aesthetic of the entire urban intervention; (d) further significant outcomes include the importance of supporting the decision strategies with quantitative and qualitative analyses, the institution of coordinating bodies to facilitate the discussion between stakeholders, and the need for deep renovation projects to fully impact existing buildings’ stock; (e) when large solar installations are planned at the ground level, a landscape design approach should be chosen, while the ecological impact should be reduced by carefully planning the adoption of alternative solutions (e.g., agrivoltaics) compatible with the existing land use.

Agrivoltaics: A Climate-Smart Agriculture Approach for Indian Farmers

India is a leader when it comes to agriculture. A significant part of the country’s population depends on agriculture for livelihood. However, many of them face challenges due to using unreliable farming techniques. Sometimes the challenges increase to the extent that they commit suicide. Besides, India is highly populated, and its population is steadily increasing, requiring its government to grow its GDP and increase its energy supply proportionately. This paper reviews integrating solar farming with agriculture, known as Agrivoltaics, as a Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) option for Indian farmers. This study is further supported by the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis of agrivoltaics. Using the SWOT analysis, this article presents how agrivoltaics can make agriculture sustainable and reliable. This paper identifies rural electrification, water conservation, yield improvement, sustainable income generation, and reduction in the usage of pesticides as the strengths of agrivoltaics. Similarly, the paper presents weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to agrivoltaics in India. The research concludes with the findings that agrivoltaics have the potential of meeting multiple objectives such as meeting global commitments, offering employment, providing economic stability, increasing clean energy production capacity, conserving natural resources, and succeeding in several others. The paper also includes a discussion about the findings, suggestions, and implications of adopting agrivoltaics on a large scale in India.

Analyzing the Impact of Agrophotovoltaic Power Plants on the Amenity Value of Agricultural Landscape: The Case of the Republic of Korea

Recently, in Korea, there have been some disturbing events forcing a trade-off between the expansion of agrophotovoltaic (APV) power plants and the agricultural policy to enhance the public benefit function of agriculture. Under this context, this study attempts to examine the public perception of agricultural landscape and the APV power plants and to analyze the impact of APV power plants on the amenity value of the agricultural landscape. The results of the analysis based on the choice experiment method shows that the marginal willingness-to-pay for a rural tourism accommodation with a ‘agricultural landscape view’ is USD 64.37 higher compared to ‘agrophotovoltaics panel view.’ This implies that the value of the agricultural landscape decreases when solar panels are installed on farmland, signifying the detrimental impact of the APV power plants on the multi-functionality of agriculture. If the installation of APVs is expanded to farmlands nationwide, the amenity value of agricultural landscape is estimated to decrease by USD 1.70 billion or 55.0% of the total estimated amenity value in Korea.