Agrivoltaic systems can improve agricultural yield by mitigating extreme plant temperatures

Agriculture suffers from more intense, prolonged, and frequent extreme temperature events such as heat waves, droughts, and frosts. Agrivoltaic systems offer an opportunity to mitigate such events by deploying photovoltaic (PV) panels above crops. In this study, measurements of plant, air, and soil temperatures, along with solar and infrared radiation, wind speed, and soil moisture demonstrate that plants benefit from cooler microclimates beneath PV panels during extreme heat events, and conversely from warmer microclimates during cold nights. More precisely, during the 2025 heat wave in France, plant temperatures beneath PV panels were observed to be up to 12 °C lower than the 45 °C recorded ones in a control zone without PV panels. Additionally, during radiation-driven spring nights, PV panels helped maintain positive plant surface temperatures. In contrast, plant surface temperatures dropped to -3 °C in the control zone, reaching the threshold at which irreversible crop damage typically begins. Quantifying the impact of PV panels on agricultural yield requires a multi-scale temporal analysis that captures their instantaneous effects on the microclimate, the occurrence of sub-daily extreme events, and their influence on crop growth throughout the season. To this end, the Farquhar photosynthesis model, using the experimental data as inputs, and the STICS crop growth model were both evaluated under stressed and non-stressed conditions. The results suggest that when extreme temperatures occur the PV-induced loss in solar radiation can be turned into a gain in agricultural yield.