[LUM#19] In the shade of the solar panels
Agrivoltaics aims to combine food production with energy generation. This concept, which originated in Montpellier and has since spread worldwide, involves installing solar panels on agricultural plots. Christian Dupraz, a researcher at the Absys , who came up with the idea.
100 gigawatts of solar power by 2050: that is the goal announced by the President of the Republic in February 2023. “A difficult challenge: south-facing roofs, parking lots, and brownfields will not be enough to meet this very ambitious but necessary goal, ” says Christian Dupraz. For the agroforestry researcher, the solution can be summed up in one word: agrivoltaics.
Agrivoltaics refers to the practice of combining solar panels with agricultural crops on the same plots of land. “The concept originated in Montpellier in 2009 with the world’s very first prototype installed in Lavalette,” recalls Christian Dupraz, the project’s founder. “When we assess the light levels on a farm plot, we find that crops use only one-third of the solar radiation. The remaining two-thirds, which aren’t used for agricultural production, can be harnessed to generate solar power; this process allows us to make better use of the sun, ” explains the crop modeler.
Movable panels
And to ensure that crops get their share of sunlight, there are two options: either install panels at a lower density on the plot, “or use movable panels that can be retracted to let light through to the crops when they need it, ” explains the researcher from the Absys laboratory. A well-designed agrivoltaic power plant can therefore fully maintain agricultural yields, and sometimes even improve production by protecting crops from extreme weather conditions.
“The panels protect the soil and crops from excessive sunlight, which reduces their water requirements by 20% to 30% and results in significant savings on irrigation. They also limit the risk of crop scorch during heat waves while protecting them from hail and mitigating the effects of frost,” explains the researcher, who notes that the crops protected by the panels can be of all kinds: vegetable farming, fruit tree cultivation, grain crops… “But they’re also beneficial for vineyards, which in recent years have suffered from excessive sunlight that makes the grapes too sweet and degrades the quality of the wine. Several winegrowers have installed agrivoltaic systems and are very satisfied with them.”
Cheaper electricity
And the electricity generated in this way can either be sold back to the grid or used for self-consumption. “This technology is attracting growing interest, especially since solar power has recently become the cheapest source of electricity,” notes Christian Dupraz. “We’ve calculated that by equipping less than 2% of France’s cultivated land with next-generation agrivoltaic systems, we can produce the equivalent in electricity of our entire current nuclear power fleet, without any reduction in agricultural production.” With a new agrivoltaic plant opening every two months in France, the idea is taking root.
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