Agrivoltaic systems potentials in Sweden: A geospatial-assisted multi-criteria analysis

Abstract

Agrivoltaic systems represent an intelligent solution combining electricity production from solar photovoltaic technology with agricultural production to avoid land use conflicts. Geographic Information System technologies can support the implementation and spread of agrivoltaic systems by identifying the most suitable areas using useful spatially explicit information concerning techno-agro-socio-economic criteria.In this study, we have developed a procedure to identify and classify suitable areas for agrivoltaic systems in Sweden. An Ordinal Priority Approach based multi-criteria decision-making algorithm is established to calculate the weights of the selected evaluation criteria through expert interviews. The land use data refers to the Corine Land Cover 2018 product.The results show that about 8.6% of the Swedish territory, approximately 38,485 km2, is suitable for installing agrivoltaic systems. Among this area, about 0.2% is classified as “excellent”, about 15% as “very good”, about 72% as “good”, about 13% as “moderate”, and about 0.1% as “poor”. Most “excellent”-classified areas are in Kalmar, Skåne, and Gotland. In contrast, most “very good” sites are in Skåne, Kalmar, and Östergötland.By deploying vertically mounted agrivoltaic systems with bifacial photovoltaic modules, the total potential installed capacity for “excellent” areas is about 2.5 GWp, while for areas classified “excellent” and “very good” is about 221 GWp. The total “excellent” areas can potentially supply about 2.4 TWh of electricity against the electricity consumption in 2021 of about 143 TWh. On the other hand, the land classified as “excellent” and “very good” could potentially provide about 207 TWh. The County of Västra Götaland shows the greatest potentials in terms of total potential electricity supply from agrivoltaic systems with about 227 TWh, followed by Skåne with a total potential of 206 TWh.