A Case Study of Soybean (Glycine max L.) Under Agrivoltaic System and Modelling Simulation

Abstract

Agrivoltaic systems (AVs) combine agricultural activities with the electricity production from photovoltaic (PV) panels constructed on the same area of land. Goetzberger and Zastrow[1] (1982) introduced the concept of AV but only more recently the increased environmental concerns and the economic and political frameworks have stimulated a growing interest in this technology. A critical issue, hampering the development of AVs, is the selection and cultivation of species adapted to the micrometeorological conditions generated by AV. This study reports on physiological, morphological and yield data of a soybean crop grown under AV. In addition, field data were compared with results from a simulation carried out with the modelling platform developed by Amaducci et al., 2018. Morphological and physiological and yield response of tomato and potato under Agrivoltaico® system parameters influenced by growth under AV were height, LAI and SLA, which were higher under AV than in normal “full light” (FL) conditions. Number of pods per plant decreased by 13% under AV compared to FL conditions while mean grain yield was reduced by 8%, only in one AV area was observed a slightly increase (+4.4%) in grain yield. The results on RMSE revealed that the model error was higher in two AV conditions compared to the other 3 treatments.