Microclimate Under Agrivoltaic Systems: Is Crop Growth Rate Affected in Partial Shade of Solar Panels?

Researchers in this study monitored soil and air temperature, humidity, wind speed, and incident radiations at a full sun site, as well as at two agrivoltaic systems with different densities of photovoltaic panels. They recorded the findings during three seasons (winter, spring, and summer) with both short cycle crops (lettuce and cucumber) and a long cycle crop (durum wheat). The researchers concluded that little adaptations in cropping practices should be required to switch from an open cropping to an agrivoltaic cropping system and attention should mostly be focused on mitigating light reduction and on selection of plants with a maximal radiation use efficiency in these conditions of fluctuating shade.