Study Reveals Benefits Of Agrivoltaics In East Africa – CleanTechnica

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Research led by the University of Sheffield reveals agrivoltaics — the practice of using the same land for farming and to produce solar electricity — leads to greater crop yields with less water than crops grown in open fields. The international team, led by Sheffield scientists in collaboration with the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry, Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania, Latia Agribusiness Solutions, and the University of Arizona, found certain crops — such as maize, Swiss chard, and beans — thrived under the partial shade provided by solar panels.

The shade also helped to reduce water loss through evaporation, leading to more efficient water usage. Additionally, rainwater harvested from the panels could be used to supplement irrigation needs. The research is published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Professor Sue Hartley of the University of Sheffield’s School of Biosciences and vice president for research and innovation was the senior author of the study.

“Imagine a future where farms are powered by clean energy and crops are more resilient to climate change,” she said. “Agrivoltaics can make this vision a reality by offering a sustainable solution to the pressing challenges of food insecurity, water scarcity, and energy poverty. By shading crops with solar panels, we created a micro-climate that helped certain crops produce more. They were also better able to survive heat waves and the shade helped conserve water, which is crucial in a region severely threatened by climate change.”

Beyond increased crop yields and water conservation, the study showed agrivoltaics can also provide a reliable source of clean energy for rural communities. Off-grid solar power systems can power homes, businesses, and agricultural equipment, improving the quality of life for many. Lead author of the study Dr. Richard Randle-Boggis said, “By combining solar panels and farming, we were able to get more from the land. This multifunctional approach shows the potential of agrivoltaics to boost food production and clean electricity generation while reducing the need for irrigation. However, it’s important to remember that one size doesn’t fit all. We need to tailor these systems to specific locations, especially in hot and dry climates.”

Agrivoltaics provide a number of important benefits. According to Yahoo! Tech, agriculture accounted for about 9.4 percent of greenhouse gas pollution in the United States in 2022, a jump of 8 percent from 1990 numbers, the Environmental Protection Agency says. That pollution comes from things like farm equipment and fertilizer, which releases methane, one of the more potent greenhouse gases. The US Department of Agriculture has reported that varying land uses, such as improving nitrogen fertilizer management, increased planting of trees and perennials on the landscape, and utilizing crops as biofuels instead of fossil fuels, can lower pollution.

Agrivoltaics Research

In the introduction to the study, the researchers wrote, “Electrification improves quality of life and is crucial for achieving almost all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), from advancing health and economic development to accessing more secure water supplies, but more than half of the population in East Africa lacked access to electricity in 2020 and many rely on biomass for energy. To address this challenge, East Africa is experiencing one of the fastest electrification rates in the world, with millions gaining access every year and electricity consumption expected to triple by 2040. However, underdeveloped national infrastructure is a barrier to this scaling up of electrification in the region, as it is typically only available in densely populated areas and subject to frequent blackouts.

“The cost of extending grid access to rural and remote areas is prohibitively high, leaving decentralized systems such as off-grid and mini-grid installations as the only means to economically provide electricity to rural, off-grid communities. Solar photovoltaic technologies can offer low carbon, renewable electricity both on and off grid, and the deployment of PV is forecast to expand. The unrealised capacity for PV technologies to meet energy needs in East Africa is enormous. The region receives an average of 4.0–6.9 kWh/m2/day of solar insolation, which could deliver universal electricity access, yet solar electricity accounts for less than one percent of the electricity generation mix.

“Food insecurity also impairs well being and hinders poorer communities from sustainable economic growth in East Africa. Irrigation is unavailable or unreliable for most smallholder farmers, and this challenge is prevalent in drier arid and semi-arid lands. Nearly half of households, experienced some form of food insecurity in 2018/19 and climate change is forecast to decrease major crop yields 8 to 45 percent by 2050. Increased solar electricity generation will help meet the growing demand for sustainable electricity sources, but without appropriate implementation it may cause conflicts with other development objectives. PV infrastructure can come at the expense of traditional land rights and uses. Where agricultural land previously used for food production is converted for PV, electricity benefits may come at the expense of food security. Realizing multiple development objectives while avoiding potential trade-offs between them is a critical challenge for achieving the SDGs. There is an urgent need to develop innovations that offer climate change resilience and food and energy security in synergy.

“Agrivoltaics offer energy and food security and improved crop/water relations, while also mitigating potential land use conflicts associated with conventional ground-mounted solar. The technology can be implemented with either crops or livestock; this research focuses on the former. The past decade has seen a rapid increase in agrivoltaics research in Europe, North America, and Central and East Asia, with studies demonstrating that agrivoltaics can deliver synergies for energy, food and water security if conducted with appropriate crop selection and designed for local environmental conditions. With appropriate design, gaps between panels allow a sufficient amount of solar radiation to reach underlying shade tolerant crops. The panels partially shade the crops and soil from direct solar radiation, reducing ultraviolet radiation damage, evapo-transpiration and irrigation demands which are particular challenges in semi-arid regions such as East Africa.

“This work presents empirical data on crop performance, electricity production, irrigation and environmental parameters collected from two fully operational agrivoltaics systems in East Africa — an off-grid system in Tanzania and a grid-tie system in Kenya. The study aimed to answer the following research questions.

Crop performance: How are the yields and morphological traits of locally relevant crops affected when grown under agrivoltaics systems in East Africa?
Water use: To what extent does the partial shading of solar panels reduce irrigation needs?
Energy potential: What impact do the agrivoltaic systems have on the energy supply and consumption for an off-grid agribusiness, and the energy supply and bills of a grid-tied agribusiness?
Land use: To what extent does combining electricity generation and crop production affect land use productivity?”

The Takeaway

We have written about the benefits of agrivoltaics many times at CleanTechnica and are constantly amazed at the number of people who refuse to even consider it for political reasons. They seem not to care that farmers struggling to pay their bills might like having the extra jingle in their pockets that solar panels on a portion of their farmland can provide, not to mention the extra income that a higher yield per acre can make possible.

Our advice is and always has been — take advantage of agrivoltaics when it makes sense, don’t use if where it doesn’t. But that should be a choice individual farmers make, not one forced upon them by others in the community who have no skin in the game. The research on agrivoltaics shows combining solar and agriculture can pay big dividends to farmers and farming communities. Refusing to leverage those benefits is just silly.