Impacts of agrivoltaics in rural electrification and decarbonization in the Philippines

Abstract

Agrivoltaic systems have attracted considerable attention for increasing the renewable energy share in the Philippines while also focusing on decarbonizing electric power systems. Given the vast rice farming areas in the Philippines and their archipelagic geological location, the use of batteries was considered instead of extending transmission lines. The available locations of the rice farm areas and power grid constraints were considered in the power system. Through linear programming, the optimization of the power generation mix model uses the existing capacities of each generator and transmission line in each area of the Philippines, with a temporal resolution of 8760 h per year. The simulation suggests an optimal integration of power generation from agrivoltaics and/or batteries. A total of 11.04 TWh and 95.75 TWh could contribute to the energy mix by using 1% and 10% of agrivoltaics subjected in the rice farmlands, respectively. By simultaneously using batteries with 10% agrivoltaics, carbon emissions can be decreased by 85%, which is higher than the country's official target. This is the first study that provides a technically feasible picture of the large-scale integration of agrivoltaics into the Philippines' power sector.