Improving the Land Use Efficiency of Farmland by Using Agrivoltaics

ABSTRACT The design and performance analysis of agrivoltaics installations for a tomato farm in the hot and dry climate of Botswana is presented. The study investigates unique agrivoltaics solutions to solve some energy, food and water issues in rural Southern Africa. Two agrivoltaics scenarios, the low PV density and high PV density, were mapped out together with the research control scenario, which was just ordinary tomato farming. The three study cases were then modelled and simulated using the STICS (Simulateur mulTIdisciplinaire pour les Cultures Standard) crop model and PV*SOL software to deduce the tomato growth and energy output of the PV installations, respectively. The results from the crop growth simulations showed that tomato harvest is reduced when cultivated in agrivoltaics settings, and that worsens as the PV density is increased. Validation of the aforementioned results by comparing with other similar studies highlighted some possible limitations of crop modelling, since in practice, shade‐tolerant plants tend to thrive in low‐density agrivoltaics. The generation of PV electricity improved the land use efficiency of the farm by 15% and 8% in the low‐density and high‐density agrivoltaics, respectively. This means that the farmer or landowner extracts more value from their land by implementing agrivoltaics instead of persisting with conventional tomato farming. Therefore, it is concluded that agrivoltaics technology can be successfully implemented in the hot and dry climate of Botswana to enjoy some synergetic benefits between crops and PV systems, as well as improve the overall efficiency of the land use.