Agrivoltaic system : A possible synergy between agriculture and solar energy

Abstract: The development of photovoltaic energy requires a lot of land. To maximize the land use, agrivoltaic systems that combine an agricultural and an electrical production on the same land unit are developed. A demonstrator was built in Montpellier (France) with dierent experimental arrangements to study the impact of a xed and a dynamic solutions on the crops below the panels. The eect of shade on lettuces appears to be positive with a Land Equivalent Ratio greater than 1. To extend the experiment to other crops, the crop species best adapted to the agrivoltaic system are identied. The shade tolerance and vulnerability to climate change are key parameters to select crops that will benet the most from the installation of PV panels. The SWOT analysis brings out that agrivoltaic systems can be a solution to maximize the land use and to adapt crops to climate change. The technical constraints imposed by the PV structure must be overcome to deploy this technology on a large scale. The greatest threat lies in the non-acceptability of the projects by farmers and the chambers of agriculture. An agrivoltaic project was developed in the South of France as a rst testing area but was nally abandoned because of too important reciprocal constraints for the farmer and the operator.