AgriPV

French energy giant TotalEnergies studied the impact of solar panels on crops in order to develop a repository of agronomic benefits. The initial results show an increase in agricultural yields on field crops and a reduction in water stress.

The US government’s FARMS projects will examine multiple configurations of solar system design, crops, and cultivation methods in order to develop replicable models that may offer new economic opportunities.

Italian researchers have looked at how soybeans could be grown in agrivoltaic installations and have found that the impact of shading is less significant than previously believed.

Chinese scientists assessed water evaporation on plots of land covered by two different kinds of agrivoltaic arrays and managed to significantly reduce evaporation in both cases. They looked at the relationship between cumulative surface evaporation and evaporation time.

Luxor Solar has developed a south-oriented system for high snow loads in Japan. It features its own heterojunction solar modules, along with mounting systems from Germany’s Next2Sun and inverters from Japan’s Omron.

The Romanian government has reportedly rejected almost all permit requests for large-scale solar projects. Law firm Vlăsceanu, Nyerges & Partners claims that the authorities are misinterpreting new rules designed to streamline the permitting process for small projects and support solar on agricultural land.

Italy’s Rem Tec has developed a rotating mounting structure for agrivoltaics. It is reportedly ideal for flat surfaces with a maximum slope of 3%, and is designed to produce a dynamic, controlled shadow on the ground.

French developer TSE has commissioned its first agrivoltaic pilot project in northeastern France. The 2.4 MW installation spans 3 hectares and is installed on arable land devoted to the cultivation of soya, wheat, rye, barley, and rapeseed.

In June 2020, German developer BayWa r.e. inaugurated its largest agrivoltaic power plant in the Netherlands, with a capacity of 2.7 MW. pv magazine France looks at the economic model.

A Swedish-Italian research group has applied state-of-the-art models for global horizontal irradiance decomposition to assess photosynthetically active radiation in agrivoltaic projects – an important variable to properly predict crop yield.