Evaluation of Agrivoltaic System in Thar Desert of India

Abstract

The demand for food and energy is increasing fast, and their security has become the prime issue in mainly developing countries like India. Agri-voltaic system has been pro-posed as a hybrid system, combining photovoltaic with agriculture simultaneously on the same land to capture solar energy for both energy generation and food production. The pre-sent study examined the performance of the 100 kWp agri-voltaic systems at ICAR-CAZRI, Jodhpur. Average PV generation from the 100 kWp AVS attached to the grid through a bi-directional energy meter or net meter has been about 342 kWh day-1. The average yield of mung bean, moth bean, and cluster bean in inter-row spaces between the panels in the two-row and three-row PV array was 1155, 670, and 2008 kg.ha-1, respectively. Thus, there were 4.6%, 8.6%, and 11.8% reductions in the yield of mung bean, moth bean, and cluster bean, respectively, in inter-row spaces between the panels compared to control. During Rabi (Irri-gated) 2021-22, the yield of chickpea, cumin, and isabgol (2490, 1000, and 700 kg ha-1, re-spectively) were lower in interspaces of the AVS than control (2670, 1120, and 760 kg ha-1, respectively). AVS resulted in a 6.6, 10.3, and 7.8% yield reduction of chickpea, cumin, and isabgol, respectively, compared to control. The AVS shows the maximum IRR (20.38%), whereas PV-GM has the lowest (19.42%) at the prevailing bank loan interest rate of 12%. The PBP estimated 7.47 years for AVS with irrigated crops and 8.11 years for AVS with rain-fed crops, whereas it was 8.61 years PV-GM. The lower value of the discounted PBP, the quicker the repayment of the investment cost. Therefore, the highest LCOE (INR 3.45 kWh-1) based on the break-even electricity tariff is estimated in PV-GM, and the lowest LCOE is computed in AVS (INR 3.17 kWh-1).