Abstract
The transition towards sustainable energy sources is crucial for mitigating climate change and achieving long-term environmental sustainability goals. Out of these energy options, photovoltaics stands out as a promising choice because it can help cut carbon emissions in various fields. Nevertheless, expanding solar photovoltaic (PV) farms on land can conflict with agricultural activities due to limited space, potentially disrupting ecosystem services. However, a solution called agrivoltaics integrates both solar PV and agriculture on the same land, maintaining or even enhancing these services. It is crucial to investigate the optimal strategies for harnessing solar radiation to produce both energy and food simultaneously. In this study, our objective is to assess the influence of agrivoltaics on ecosystem services beyond conventional agricultural outputs. We employ land suitability analysis as our primary methodological approach to evaluate the compatibility of agrivoltaic systems with diverse ecological services. Our investigation aims to elucidate the broader ecological implications of integrating solar photovoltaic technology with agricultural practices. The case study is conducted in the Basilicata region of Italy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Toledo, C., Scognamiglio, A.: Agrivoltaic systems design and assessment: a critical review, and a descriptive model towards a sustainable landscape vision (three-dimensional agrivoltaic patterns). Sustainability 13 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126871
Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica: Linee Guida in materia di Impianti Agrivoltaici. (2022)
Goetzberger, A., Zastrow, A.: On the coexistence of solar-energy conversion and plant cultivation. Int. J. Solar Energy 1, 55–69 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1080/01425918208909875
Dinesh, H., Pearce, J.M.: The potential of agrivoltaic systems. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 54, 299–308 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.10.024
Dupraz, C., Marrou, H., Talbot, G., Dufour, L., Nogier, A., Ferard, Y.: Combining solar photovoltaic panels and food crops for optimising land use: towards new agrivoltaic schemes. Renew. Energy 36, 2725–2732 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2011.03.005
Barron-Gafford, G.A., et al.: Agrivoltaics provide mutual benefits across the food–energy–water nexus in drylands. Nat. Sustain. 2, 848–855 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0364-5
Sekiyama, T.: Akira Nagashima Sunlight Power Generation System. Patent (2005)
Weselek, A., Ehmann, A., Zikeli, S., Lewandowski, I., Schindele, S., Högy, P.: Agrophotovoltaic systems: applications, challenges, and opportunities. A review. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 39, 35 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-019-0581-3
Marrou, H., Wery, J., Dufour, L., Dupraz, C.: Productivity and radiation use efficiency of lettuces grown in the partial shade of photovoltaic panels. Eur. J. Agron. 44, 54–66 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2012.08.003
Elamri, Y., Cheviron, B., Lopez, J.-M., Dejean, C., Belaud, G.: Water budget and crop modelling for agrivoltaic systems: application to irrigated lettuces. Agric. Water Manag. 208, 440–453 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.07.001
Pang, K., Van Sambeek, J.W., Navarrete-Tindall, N.E., Lin, C.-H., Jose, S., Garrett, H.E.: Responses of legumes and grasses to non-, moderate, and dense shade in Missouri, USA. I. Forage yield and its species-level plasticity. Agroforestry Syst. 93, 11–24 (2019)
Hendawy, E., et al.: The prediction and assessment of the impacts of soil sealing on agricultural land in the North Nile Delta (Egypt) using satellite data and GIS modeling. Sustainability (Switzerland) 11(17) (2019). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174662
Manganelli, B., Murgante, B., Saganeiti, L.: The social cost of urban sprinkling. Sustainability (Switzerland) 12(6) (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062236
Molaei Qelichi, M., Murgante, B., Yousefi Feshki, M., Zarghamfard, M.: Urbanization patterns in Iran visualized through spatial auto-correlation analysis. Spat. Inf. Res. 25(5), 627–633 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41324-017-0128-0
Murgante, B., Borruso, G., Balletto, G., Castiglia, P., Dettori, M.: Why Italy first? Health, geographical and planning aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak. Sustainability (Switzerland) 12(12) (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125064
Saganeiti, L., Mustafa, A., Teller, J., Murgante, B.: Modeling urban sprinkling with cellular automata. Sustain. Cities Soc. 65, 102586 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102586
Fattoruso, G., Toscano, D., Venturo, A., Scognamiglio, A., Fabricino, M., Di Francia, G.: A spatial multicriteria analysis for a regional assessment of eligible areas for sustainable agrivoltaic systems in Italy. Sustainability (Switzerland) 16(2) (2024). https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020911
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank ENEA. This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security in the framework of the Operating Agreement with ENEA for Research on the Electric System - Theme 1.1 High performance Photovoltaics.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Murgante, B., Rahmani, S., Scorzelli, R., Fattoruso, G., Annunziata, A. (2024). Optimizing Agrivoltaic Integration: Spatial Analysis and AHP Assessment. In: Gervasi, O., Murgante, B., Garau, C., Taniar, D., C. Rocha, A.M.A., Faginas Lago, M.N. (eds) Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2024 Workshops. ICCSA 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14825. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65343-8_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65343-8_22
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-65342-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-65343-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)