Energy performance and crop yield production of a semitransparent photovoltaic greenhouse

Agrivoltaics have emerged as a viable solution to resolve conflicts arising from land-use competition between large photovoltaic solar installations and conventional agriculture. However, their implementation has not yet fully addressed the issue of social community rejection due to visual impact or making agricultural tasks more difficult. For this reason, integrating photovoltaics into existing agricultural infrastructure could offer a promising solution to mitigate this issue. The present research focuses on the analysis and modelling about the integration of two types of semitransparent organic photovoltaic (OPV) modules in multi-tunnel greenhouses. Two different representative locations of high density of greenhouses are selected: Almeria (Spain) and Agadir (Morocco). A holistic model based on Python/Trnsys/Radiance/TOMGRO is proposed to evaluate the energy, light, and tomato crop behaviour under various OPV coverage percentages and their positions on the greenhouse roof. The results demonstrate that higher OPV coverage percentages lead to a reduction in overall energy consumption in both locations. However, when looking at the illumination levels and weight of the tomato crop the tendency is opposite, resulting in insufficient illumination levels for some periods. This scenario presents a significant challenge in determining the optimal solution, owing to the difficulty in striking a balance between two essential goods: energy and food. In response to this, a strategy that slightly favours food production is adopted, aiming to minimise the impact on crop growth. From this perspective, the optimal solution for both locations is the use of OPV modules with 66 % coverage. This configuration is projected to satisfy about 50 % of the heating energy needs, but it may lead to a reduction in tomato yields by around 12 % with respect to a standard greenhouse.