Maximizing Economic Performance of Agrivoltaic Systems through Module Array Design

Growing demand for food and energy has prompted the need for an efficient utilization of the land resources which are globally under increasing stress due to climate change and population growth. Agrivoltaics (AV) offers a dual use of land for harvesting food and solar energy. The design of module arrays in AV must achieve an optimal balance between food and energy production while ensuring an economic viability. We explore techno-economic effects of module array density, hardware infrastructure cost, land specific soft costs, and the net crop income on the AV system design. A variety of module technologies including fixed tilt and tracking modules with standard tracking (ST) and anti-tracking (AT) are explored. We show that both fixed tilt and tracking systems can be designed for an optimal yield and economic viability, the latter provides best flexibility for various types of crops. While ST maximizes the energy conversion, agriculture yield may significantly decrease. AT on the other hand, maximizes agricultural production, but the energy conversion can drop by ~60% making it economically infeasible. An optimal tracking system for AV can therefore use a combination of ST and AT to meet the yield and economic targets.