Sensitivity Analysis for Optimized Agrivoltaic Designs: An Inquiry on the Trade-off Between Homogenous Light Conditions and Electrical Yield

Abstract

Agrivoltaics facilitates the collocation of agriculture and solar power generation while helping to increase the income in the farming sector by producing extra electricity. In order to secure benefits for both sectors, this study considers the configuration variables for the agrivoltaic system design which usually deviate from the commercial ground-mounted photovoltaic systems. The homogeneity of light conditions on the ground level in 7 locations across the world with different climate conditions is analyzed in detail using different system designs. In addition, this study compares electricity productions of different agrivoltaic designs. The designs for optimal crop yield and for optimal electricity production are different. The homogeneity of the light conditions on ground level varies greatly depending on the system design, and the results of the homogeneity of the lighting conditions on the ground, which varies depending on 7 locations, were analyzed. And also, global tilted irradiation, which directly affects electric energy production, was analyzed at each location. as a result, the homogeneity of the irradiation under the arrays differs according to the azimuth. And also, the east-west system mentioned in this paper has the highest homogeneity of irradiation and the lowest global tilted irradiation.