講演情報
[O02-P01]Design tradeoffs in agrivoltaics: Crop-suitable light and energy production in California★Invited Papers
*Daphne Condon1、Rebecca R Hernandez1 (1.University of California Davis)
キーワード：
renewable energy、agrivoltaics、solar energy、agriculture、sustainable design
Commitments to rigorous climate and clean energy goals in California, the largest agricultural economy in the United States and a globally important producer of specialty crops, have placed pressure on agricultural lands to absorb expanding solar energy infrastructure. Agrivoltaic systems, which co-locate photovoltaic solar systems with crop production, are increasingly proposed as a land-sparing strategy to support renewable energy expansion while preserving agricultural land. Despite this potential, commercial development of agrivoltaics in California is mostly nascent, characterized, in part, by limited precedent and uncertainty around how system design influences crop performance. This study characterizes and simulates seven AV configurations of varying shading rate, panel clearance, and spatial arrangement, representing a range of deployable system designs that are consistent with likely early-adoption pathways in California. We examine the technical feasibility to support light requirements for strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa), two California specialty crops. Using site-specific data across multiple California regions, we model hourly photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and daily light integral (DLI) under open-field and seven agrivoltaic system configurations. Additionally, we estimate the annual energy production of each configuration to contextualize tradeoffs between agricultural performance and energy generation. Our results show a reduction in mean DLI across all AV configurations compared to open field plots, which is more pronounced in the warm growing season (May - October, 17.2 mol m-2 d-1 reduction) than the cool growing season (November - April, 10.5 mol m-2 d-1 reduction). In the cool season, modeled AV configurations increase suitable-light days for lettuce from about 20% to 34%, but reduce suitable light-days for strawberries from about 30% to 14%. In the warm season, modeled AV configurations reduce extreme light levels and increase the number of suitable days for both crops, but most days remain above optimal light ranges, limiting overall improvements. System configurations strongly shape tradeoffs between light conditions and energy output, with densely packed fixed-tilt systems (i.e., 4 m pitch) producing the most energy at the expense of suitable light-days in the cool season. Single-axis tracking AV systems show the largest improvements in the share of suitable-light days alongside relatively high energy generation. These findings highlight the need for agrivoltaic design approaches that explicitly balance crop-specific light requirements with energy generation objectives across sites and seasons. In California, these tradeoffs directly influence which system configurations may be viable for early adoption, with designs that prioritize energy production often reducing suitable light conditions for specialty crops.