A case study on the shading ratio for an Agrivoltaics system

Agrivoltaics, the dual use of land for electricity generation and agricultural production, is a promising solution to a future sustainable world. This study examines the effects of the panels’ installation height and distance between each row of panels on reduced solar exposure of the ground caused by photovoltaic panel installation in a US Midwest region. The results show a decrease in shading caused by increasing row distance. Further, mounting elevation is shown not to have a statistically significant impact on shading. Moreover, statistical analysis revealed linear correlations to estimate the shading ratio based on the row spacing. The findings can help the agricultural sector select crops effectively for agrivoltaics systems based on crop solar exposure needs. Lastly, the effect of varying row spacing was investigated on the annual electricity generated, where a reduction of 58.4% is observed between the smallest and largest row spacing values.