Shade Tolerant Crops Plantation on Farmland under Solar PV Panel

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.