Agrivoltaics is growing rapidly in the field where solar panels shield crops from the harsh sun and often increase crop yield. It turns out agrivoltaics can work indoors as well. In agrivoltaic controlled environmental agriculture, semi-transparent solar photovoltaic panels are incorporated into greenhouses to provide sustainable energy for operations. For the first time, a new study evaluates the performance of semi-transparent solar photovoltaic panel technologies integrated into tomato greenhouses in southern Ontario through experimental agronomic investigations and three energy, economic, and environmental simulation scenarios:

1) conventional gas-heated,

3) agrivoltaic-heat pump-based greenhouses.

Agrivoltaic Greenhouses Tomatoes Results

Semi-transparent solar photovoltaic panel configurations tested included crystal silicon with 44% and 69% transparency, as well as with luminescent solar concentrators (53% and 69% transparency), and red and blue thin-film (50% transparency). The study found that agrivoltaic systems maintained stable leaf chlorophyll content and comparable growth trends relative to the control, however 69% transparent crystal silicon PV improved yield the best by 38%.

Agrivoltaic Greenhouses Energy Use for Tomatoes

EnergyPlus modeling results indicated while heating loads were nearly three times higher than cooling loads, replacing the gas heater with a heat pump fully eliminated fossil fuel consumption, and increased electricity use by only about 1.5 times. Integrating the selected 69% semi-transparent solar photovoltaic panel system with a heat pump enabled fully electrification of an agrivoltaic greenhouse. The agrivoltaic system supplied approximately 13% of the total annual electricity demand. Although this increased costs 5% relative to subsidized gas, the costs were stabilized and the carbon emissions were reduced by 71.7%, outperforming the heat-pump-only retrofit with 67.9% reductions. These results are particularly important for Southern Ontario which is natural gas pipeline constrained from the growth the market could sustain.

Overall, the results demonstrated that rooftop agrivoltaic integration combined with heat pump electrification is a technically feasible and environmentally effective pathway toward low-carbon greenhouse operation in northern climates like Canada. This same lesson can be applied at home where not only can agrivoltaics work in your garden but heat pumps can be used to cut emissions and costs for heating your home.