Abstract
Accessing solar photovoltaic energy is a key point to develop sustainable energy and the economy of a developing country like India. The country has set a target of 100 GW of power production from solar photovoltaics to double the farmer's income by 2022, out of which 50 GW has been achieved by 2021. As an evolving economy, demand for energy and foods has improved by almost 40% and 25%, respectively. This transition will add to the global competition in land use issues. In this perspective, a dual land use approach, ‘agrivoltaic system’ is essential to secure land tenure as well as enhance energy-food security, socio-economic feasibility, and livelihoods of the country. In the present study, three different types of design techniques have been demonstrated to obtain an efficient system. A double row array design capacity of a 6 kWp agrivoltaic system is found as the best system in terms of average annual revenue, land equivalent ratio, and payback period resulting in 2308.9 USD, 1.42, and up to 7.6 years, respectively. Further, the socio-economic parameters such as revenue, benefit–cost ratio, and price–performance ratio of turmeric are found to be 187.3 USD, 1.86, and 0.75, respectively, in the same land use. This work can be extended to a different technology of panels, more seasonal crops, and photosynthesis responses in medium and large-scale AVS.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Management of Centurion University of Technology and Management, India, for providing the facilities to carry out the research work in both the college campus and my homeland. The required fieldwork, design, and experimental analysis have been conducted both inside and outside the campus. The assessments expressed in the article do not essential to represent the outlooks of the University or the stakeholders.
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Nimay Chandra Giri was involved in conceptualization, resources, data collection, methodology, designing, analysis, visualization, writing, original draft preparation. Ramesh Chandra Mohanty contributed to methodology, software, writing, reviewing, editing, and interpretation, paper correction, and formatting.
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Giri, N.C., Mohanty, R.C. Design of agrivoltaic system to optimize land use for clean energy-food production: a socio-economic and environmental assessment. Clean Techn Environ Policy 24, 2595–2606 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-022-02337-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-022-02337-7