Agrivoltaics module at Sierra Nevada of Puebla: Energy production, crop growth and community resilience

Climate change and population growth in recent decades have led to challenges related to energy and food insufficiency. One of the factors that aggravate this issue is land-use competition; on one hand, due to the high demand for food, large areas of land are required for cultivation; and on the other hand, photovoltaic installations, although they are a great alternative as renewable energy, also require a large area for their installation. In order to solve the land competition in the 1980s emerged photovoltaic agriculture or agrivoltaics, which proposes to use the same land surface for agriculture and photovoltaic installations. This approach has demonstrated benefits for crops and improved solar panel efficiency. Mexico is a country with high solar radiation capture, making it a great candidate for the development of agrivoltaic systems. This work presents an agrivoltaics module installed in the Sierra Nevada de Puebla, Mexico, in the community of Santiago Xalitzintla, aiming to enhance energy conditions, achieve food sovereignty and strengthen community resilience.