Estimating the potential for semitransparent organic solar cells in agrophotovoltaic greenhouses

Abstract

Agrophotovoltaic is a considerably new solar sharing concept between photovoltaic energy generation and agricultural production. Agrophotovoltaic aims to promote solar energy while producing crops on the same land. Currently, agrophotovoltaics employ conventional silicon solar cells at a high cost. However, organic PV offers convenient features like panel flexibility, semitransparency and an easier fabrication route at a lower price. This work assesses and analyses the potential for semitransparent organic solar cells in agrophotovoltaic greenhouses. Semitransparent solar cells transform agrophotovoltaic from a solar sharing technology to selective solar spectrum utilization. Organic semitransparent cells with 9.4% power conversion efficiency and 24.6% average visible transmittance are employed to design the greenhouse. For evaluation, a 3D greenhouse model is designed to simulate and compare light interaction and crop growth with both traditional and semitransparent technologies. This case study used ground-measured weather data from Geraldton (Australia), a tomato growth model, and transmittance data from a semitransparent organic solar cell having PTB7-Th: IEICO-4F as the active layer. The simulation results show a 46% increase in dry ground weight of tomato crops with the semitransparent organic solar cell compared to the conventional Silicon cell agrophotovoltaic greenhouse. The simulation model shows reasonable coherence when implemented for two other locations. A thorough model analysis with economic sensitivity is performed to assess the potential usage of semitransparent solar cells in a greenhouse to yield better crop growth.