Possible implementations of agrivoltaics in Sweden : With focus on solar irradiation and electricity production

Abstract: With a need for rapid growth of renewable energy sources like photovoltaics, there will also be a competition of land. Agriculture and solar energy share the same optimum conditions of land to produce. But with a combination of the two on the same surface, a concept called agrivoltaic, that issue can be solved. This projects has investigated the possibilities of implementing an agrivoltaic system in Sweden in the near future with a focus on solar irradiation, energy production and crop selection. The decrease in solar irradiation under the panels was simulated because it is an important parameter in making these kinds of systems profitable from a crop and energy perspective. The annual energy production and energy yield was also simulated for various system designs for a comparison between the two important parameters of an agrivoltaic system.  One solar fence system, a single axis tracker system and an integrated PV system was chosen for the simulations. In general, all results of agrivoltaics is location dependent due to important differences in solar irradiance and climate. The solar fence system had the best results regarding the solar irradiance, with a decrease in the range of 3-5% and 20-28 % depending on the design. Single axis trackers had a minimum 3-8 % and maximum 40-59 % and integrated PV had a minimum 42-60% and maximum 50-75 % reduction. When the annual energy was compared with a row spacing of 12 m, the solar fence has an annual energy of 1738 kWh and single axis trackers got 2812 kWh. The results indicate that depending on what is most important for the system, the recommendations are different. If energy is more important, then the single axis tracker system can be a good fit but if it is solar irradiance, the solar fence is better. Both systems should be suitable for shade tolerant crops but if experimenting with others such as field bean and barley, the solar fence is more appropriate. The results for the integrated panels designs indicates that these designs are not a good first fit for Sweden since the reduction is greater than 50 % for most designs. Since there is only one agrivoltaic system in Sweden with results on one type of crop, there is a need for more systems with different designs and crops to be able to tell the real potential of agrivoltaics is Sweden.