Comparative analysis of photovoltaic configurations for agrivoltaic systems in Europe

Kamran Ali Khan Niazi*, Marta Victoria

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)
9 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Agrivoltaics is the dual use of land by combining agricultural crop production and photovoltaic (PV) systems. In this work, we have analyzed three different agrivoltaic configurations: static with optimal tilt, vertically mounted bifacial, and single-axis horizontal tracking. A model is developed to calculate the shadowing losses on the PV panels along with the reduced solar irradiation reaching the area under them for different PV capacity densities. First, we investigate the trade-offs using a location in Denmark as a case study and second, we extrapolate the analysis to the rest of Europe. We find that the vertical and single-axis tracking produce more uniform irradiance on the ground, and a capacity density of around 30 W/m 2 is suitable for agrivoltaic systems. Based on our model and a 100-m-resolution land cover database, we calculate the potential for agrivoltaic in every region within the European Union. The potential for agrivoltaic is enormous as the electricity generated by agrivoltaic systems could produce 25 times the current electricity demand in Europe. Overall, the potential capacity for agrivoltaic in Europe is 51 TW, which would result in an electricity yield of 71,500 TWh/year.

Original languageEnglish
JournalProgress in Photovoltaics
Volume31
Issue11
Pages (from-to)1101-1113
Number of pages13
ISSN1099-159X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2023

Keywords

  • NUTS-2 region
  • agrivoltaics (APV)
  • capacity density
  • crop production
  • optimal tilt PV system
  • photovoltaic (PV) systems
  • single-axis horizontal tracking
  • vertically mounted bifacial PV system

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