Abstract:
Agro-photovoltaic (APV) technology addresses the challenges of land-use
competition by enabling simultaneous solar power generation and food
production, thus mitigating potential economic, ecological, political, and social
conflicts in Bangladesh's future energy landscape. This study investigates the
growth and yield of shade-tolerant crops, including tomato, brinjal, green chili,
lettuce, aloe vera, cucumber, snake-gourd and rose flowers, under shaded and
non-shaded conditions. Key plant growth parameters such as height, number of
leaves, flowers, fruits, and fruit weight are measured to evaluate crop
performance in the APV system. The Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) is utilized to
compare the efficiency of food and energy production in APV systems against
traditional monoculture farming, identifying optimal crops for APV integration.
Energy generation from a stand-alone APV (SAPV) system is measured and
simulated using PVsyst software to optimize system performance and maximize
power output. Electrical shading analysis is conducted to improve the synergy
between crop growth and energy production. Results indicate that brinjal,
lettuce, aloe vera, cucumber, and rose flowers exhibit yield advantages in the
APV system, while green chili and snake gourd show disadvantages, and tomato
demonstrates no significant difference. The SAPV system achieves an average
yearly performance ratio of 75.4% and a solar fraction (FR) of 0.914, consistently
meeting energy demands with an average daily energy production of 1.157 kWh.
This study highlights the feasibility of APV systems as a sustainable model for
integrated food and energy production in Bangladesh, demonstrating their
potential to enhance land-use efficiency and contribute to the nation's energy and
agricultural resilience.
