Residential Agrivoltaics: Energy Efficiency and Water Conservation in the Urban Landscape

Agrivoltaics shows promise as a practice that can reduce agricultural water use and plant water stress, while also increasing photovoltaic (PV) efficiency due to cooler temperatures of the panels from evapotranspiration below, but little work has investigated this practice at the residential scale. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the potential impact on water use and garden plants that would be found on a typical residential property, and evaluate the impact on solar PV energy production using residential agrivoltaics vs. typical roof-mount residential solar panels. Experimental plots were established to compare lettuce growth and water use between full-sun and a shaded agrivoltaics setup, and to compare temperatures and power production of the PV panels in the agrivoltaics plot vs. a typical roof-mount installation. Results showed significantly less irrigation requirements in the agrivolatic plot vs. the full-sun plot. Weights and leaf counts were significantly lower in the agrivolatic plot, though average leaf lengths were greater than in the full-sun plot. Roof-mount PV panel temperature was significantly higher than the agrivoltaics panel, depending on cloud cover and irradiance, which corresponded to up to a 3.6% decrease in power loss. Results show promise for both water conservation and energy production benefits, but further work is needed to determine optimal conditions that would not affect plant yield, and to verify effects on PV panel production under full load conditions.