Optimizing sunlight distribution in agrivoltaic systems for the Swedish climate

Sammanfattning: Due to a rising land demand for the construction of large-scale PV-systems, there is increasing competition between energy and food production. A new emerging segment within the PV market called agrivoltaics is providing a contributing solution to this issue by co-using the land for both crop cultivation and PV energy. Agrivoltaics is a relatively new application in Sweden, so far there is only one research site in Kärrbo Prästgård, Västerås, which was built in 2020. This thesis aims to examine how the basic layout of a PV system affects the irradiance distribution of an agrivoltaic system located in Sweden. With the aim of reaching an effective light sharing to provide the crops with acceptable growing conditions while producing as much electricity as possible. Methodologically, this was done by performing optical light simulations for a big number of different PV layouts. The results show how the module row distance and the array height have the most significant influence on the total irradiance distribution throughout the year. Furthermore, by altering the clearance height and the system azimuth, the irradiance uniformity on the ground can be improved, which results in more similar growing conditions for all the cultivated crops. Arguments are also given for why it is helpful to consider the temporal distribution of the ground irradiance. This thesis has shown that there are PV system layouts that provide low degrees of shading for the crops cultivated on the ground beneath the modules. However, if agrivoltaics is a suitable application for the Swedish climate or not is still an open question. Economic analysis is needed to examine the profitability of agrivoltaic systems in Sweden, and experimental studies on how the shading from the PV modules affect the crop growth in practice would also be useful. In the result section, there are some example layouts given for different degrees of tolerated ground shading which can be used when planning for future agrivoltaic parks. The results generated in the optical light simulations will be accessible for future research. These data files can be found attached together with this report on the DiVA portal.