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Agrovoltaic energy consists of using the same area of land to obtain both solar energy and agricultural products. In other words, solar panels coexist with crops on the same surface.

Introduction:

India currently ranks 5th globally in installed solar power capacity, boasting 84 GW installed capacity, and standing as the 3rd largest solar power generator. The nation aims to achieve 500 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, with solar contributing nearly 280 GW. However, meeting these targets would necessitate utilizing 75,000 square kilometres of India’s landmass for solar generation.

Adopting mini-grid systems like agrivoltaics (agro-PV) offers a solution by optimizing land use, reducing transmission distances and integrating energy production with local agriculture.

Relevance in India

1. Agrivoltaics combines agriculture with solar energy production, installing panels on current and fallow agricultural land to generate renewable energy alongside cultivating crops beneath PV panels. This dual land-use system offers a sustainable and reliable solution to land scarcity and acquisition for solar energy, including localised transmission and distribution.
2. This approach improves land productivity by 35-73 per cent, providing a sustainable solution to land scarcity and acquisition for solar energy.
3. In agrivoltaics, solar panels are mounted 2-3 metres above ground to allow sufficient sunlight for crops underneath or in-between. This setup creates a microclimate in solar farms that protects crops from extreme weather conditions, reduces soil moisture evaporation and enhances solar panel efficiency by 2-6 degrees, thus extending their lifespan.
4. Combining energy generation with agriculture provides economic and environmental benefits. These can be in the form of assured long-term revenue for farmers through electricity sales or powering their own operations, reducing reliance on emission-intensive energy sources.
5. It can also help with mitigation of risks from crop failures and reduced yields due to climate change impacts like heat waves, droughts and declining precipitation.

Agro-PV applications with various crops

1. The agro-PV installations support both food and non-food crops. There are versatile designs of combining various food crops, such as rice, millets, oil-seeds with energy generation.
2. The shading and sheltering provided by the panels lowers ground temperature, which reduces water losses and increases productivity. For instance, tomato and lettuce see an increased yield of 11 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively; cotton yield rises by 33 per cent, resulting in a net income increase of up to 142 per cent.
3. The increased land productivity can offset any reduced yields, making such combined systems more profitable even at 10-30 per cent reduction in yield.

To summarize:

 

 

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