IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v13y2024i12p2043-d1532350.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluation of a Great Agrovoltaic Implementation in an Isle Using SWOT and TOWS Matrices: Case Study of Gran Canaria Island (Spain)

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Pulido-Alonso

    (Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain)

  • José C. Quintana-Suárez

    (Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain)

  • Enrique Rosales-Asensio

    (Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain)

  • José J. Feo-García

    (Department of Electronical Engineering, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain)

  • Néstor R. Florido-Suárez

    (Department of Civil Engineering, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain)

Abstract

Nowadays, we are heading towards global decarbonisation, with each sector involved contributing partial solutions to the problem, without realising that an overall vision is necessary. Photovoltaics emerged as a technology that requires a lot of surface area, which is why it has been integrated into buildings and other human infrastructures (BPVI). The effects of the implementation of AVS on an island have been analysed, observing the territory’s energy use, population, and social and topographical realities, collecting all the peculiarities that could be affected by a massive implementation of this technology. The method to be followed is a SWOT and TOWS analysis, widely employed in all types of scientific studies. The increase in the island’s resilience has been assessed, as has its decreasing its dependence on the outside. In this case, it has been observed that conventional PV is currently being installed on agricultural land to decarbonise electricity production, which mostly relies on oil and does not consider that the island is a territory with a high food dependence on the outside; a high unemployment rate; a high factor of soil desertification, meaning fires are frequent; a high rate of abandonment of agricultural land; and a shortage of flat land. Therefore, we affirm that the island’s carbon footprint will increase by not taking all these factors into account. In addition to punishing the local economy by destroying fertile soil, local food and jobs, the current method of energy production increases the need for subsidies to import food products from abroad. In addition, we claim that the use of AVS reduces the water needs of the crop, which is relevant on an island with great water scarcity. It is concluded that 11 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals would be improved with the use of agrovoltaic technology.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Pulido-Alonso & José C. Quintana-Suárez & Enrique Rosales-Asensio & José J. Feo-García & Néstor R. Florido-Suárez, 2024. "Evaluation of a Great Agrovoltaic Implementation in an Isle Using SWOT and TOWS Matrices: Case Study of Gran Canaria Island (Spain)," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-33, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:12:p:2043-:d:1532350
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/12/2043/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/12/2043/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amaducci, Stefano & Yin, Xinyou & Colauzzi, Michele, 2018. "Agrivoltaic systems to optimise land use for electric energy production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 545-561.
    2. Chudinzow, Dimitrij & Nagel, Sylvio & Güsewell, Joshua & Eltrop, Ludger, 2020. "Vertical bifacial photovoltaics – A complementary technology for the European electricity supply?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    3. Meagan Reasoner & Aritra Ghosh, 2022. "Agrivoltaic Engineering and Layout Optimization Approaches in the Transition to Renewable Energy Technologies: A Review," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-14, September.
    4. Willockx, Brecht & Reher, Thomas & Lavaert, Cas & Herteleer, Bert & Van de Poel, Bram & Cappelle, Jan, 2024. "Design and evaluation of an agrivoltaic system for a pear orchard," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PB).
    5. Emanuela Cicinelli & Giulia Caneva & Valentina Savo, 2021. "A Review on Management Strategies of the Terraced Agricultural Systems and Conservation Actions to Maintain Cultural Landscapes around the Mediterranean Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-12, April.
    6. San Kim & Jinyeong Lee, 2024. "Optimal Scheduling Strategy for Distribution Network with Mobile Energy Storage System and Offline Control PVs to Minimize the Solar Energy Curtailment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-17, May.
    7. Gonocruz, Ruth Anne Tanlioco & Yoshida, Yoshikuni & Ozawa, Akito & Aguirre, Rodolfo A. & Maguindayao, Edward Joseph H., 2023. "Impacts of agrivoltaics in rural electrification and decarbonization in the Philippines," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    8. Paweł Pijarski & Piotr Kacejko, 2023. "Elimination of Line Overloads in a Power System Saturated with Renewable Energy Sources," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Agostini, A. & Colauzzi, M. & Amaducci, S., 2021. "Innovative agrivoltaic systems to produce sustainable energy: An economic and environmental assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    10. Drago Cvijanović & Svetlana Ignjatijević & Jelena Vapa Tankosić & Vojin Cvijanović, 2020. "Do Local Food Products Contribute to Sustainable Economic Development?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-18, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chopdar, R.K. & Sengar, N. & Giri, Nimay Chandra & Halliday, D., 2024. "Comprehensive review on agrivoltaics with technical, environmental and societal insights," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    2. Rittick Maity & Kumarasamy Sudhakar & Amir Abdul Razak & Alagar Karthick & Dan Barbulescu, 2023. "Agrivoltaic: A Strategic Assessment Using SWOT and TOWS Matrix," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-18, April.
    3. Jamil, Uzair & Hickey, Thomas & Pearce, Joshua M., 2024. "Solar energy modelling and proposed crops for different types of agrivoltaics systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    4. Alexander V. Klokov & Egor Yu. Loktionov & Yuri V. Loktionov & Vladimir A. Panchenko & Elizaveta S. Sharaborova, 2023. "A Mini-Review of Current Activities and Future Trends in Agrivoltaics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-18, March.
    5. Krexner, T. & Bauer, A. & Gronauer, A. & Mikovits, C. & Schmidt, J. & Kral, I., 2024. "Environmental life cycle assessment of a stilted and vertical bifacial crop-based agrivoltaic multi land-use system and comparison with a mono land-use of agricultural land," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    6. Grubbs, E.K. & Gruss, S.M. & Schull, V.Z. & Gosney, M.J. & Mickelbart, M.V. & Brouder, S. & Gitau, M.W. & Bermel, P. & Tuinstra, M.R. & Agrawal, R., 2024. "Optimized agrivoltaic tracking for nearly-full commodity crop and energy production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    7. Casares de la Torre, F.J. & Varo, Marta & López-Luque, R. & Ramírez-Faz, J. & Fernández-Ahumada, L.M., 2022. "Design and analysis of a tracking / backtracking strategy for PV plants with horizontal trackers after their conversion to agrivoltaic plants," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 537-550.
    8. Gorjian, Shiva & Jalili Jamshidian, Farid & Gorjian, Alireza & Faridi, Hamideh & Vafaei, Mohammad & Zhang, Fangxin & Liu, Wen & Elia Campana, Pietro, 2023. "Technological advancements and research prospects of innovative concentrating agrivoltaics," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    9. Grazia Disciglio & Laura Frabboni & Annalisa Tarantino & Antonio Stasi, 2023. "Association between Dynamic Agrivoltaic System and Cultivation: Viability, Yields and Qualitative Assessment of Medical Plants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-13, November.
    10. Junedi, M.M. & Ludin, N.A. & Hamid, N.H. & Kathleen, P.R. & Hasila, J. & Ahmad Affandi, N.A., 2022. "Environmental and economic performance assessment of integrated conventional solar photovoltaic and agrophotovoltaic systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    11. Cossu, Marco & Tiloca, Maria Teresa & Cossu, Andrea & Deligios, Paola A. & Pala, Tore & Ledda, Luigi, 2023. "Increasing the agricultural sustainability of closed agrivoltaic systems with the integration of vertical farming: A case study on baby-leaf lettuce," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 344(C).
    12. Ji, Zhengsen & Li, Wanying & Niu, Dongxiao, 2024. "Optimal investment decision of agrivoltaic coupling energy storage project based on distributed linguistic trust and hybrid evaluation method," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PA).
    13. Jerome Wei Chiang Teng & Chew Beng Soh & Shiddalingeshwar Channabasappa Devihosur & Ryan Hong Soon Tay & Steve Kardinal Jusuf, 2022. "Effects of Agrivoltaic Systems on the Surrounding Rooftop Microclimate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-13, June.
    14. Semeraro, Teodoro & Scarano, Aurelia & Curci, Lorenzo Maria & Leggieri, Angelo & Lenucci, Marcello & Basset, Alberto & Santino, Angelo & Piro, Gabriella & De Caroli, Monica, 2024. "Shading effects in agrivoltaic systems can make the difference in boosting food security in climate change," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    15. Cuppari, Rosa I. & Higgins, Chad W. & Characklis, Gregory W., 2021. "Agrivoltaics and weather risk: A diversification strategy for landowners," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    16. Al Mamun, Mohammad Abdullah & Garba, Ismail Ibrahim & Campbell, Shane & Dargusch, Paul & deVoil, Peter & Aziz, Ammar Abdul, 2023. "Biomass production of a sub-tropical grass under different photovoltaic installations using different grazing strategies," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    17. Aidana Chalgynbayeva & Péter Balogh & László Szőllősi & Zoltán Gabnai & Ferenc Apáti & Marianna Sipos & Attila Bai, 2024. "The Economic Potential of Agrivoltaic Systems in Apple Cultivation—A Hungarian Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-34, March.
    18. Jing, Rui & He, Yang & He, Jijiang & Liu, Yang & Yang, Shoubing, 2022. "Global sensitivity based prioritizing the parametric uncertainties in economic analysis when co-locating photovoltaic with agriculture and aquaculture in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 1048-1059.
    19. Nima Asgari & Uzair Jamil & Joshua M. Pearce, 2024. "Net Zero Agrivoltaic Arrays for Agrotunnel Vertical Growing Systems: Energy Analysis and System Sizing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-32, July.
    20. Edouard, Sylvain & Combes, Didier & Van Iseghem, Mike & Ng Wing Tin, Marion & Escobar-Gutiérrez, Abraham J., 2023. "Increasing land productivity with agriphotovoltaics: Application to an alfalfa field," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:12:p:2043-:d:1532350. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.