Project description

Intensive agricultural production and growing climate variability are placing increasing pressure on farmland, energy systems, and food security. In response, agrivoltaics — the combined use of land for both solar energy generation and crop cultivation — has emerged as a promising approach to address these challenges simultaneously. By shading crops from extreme heat, reducing water evaporation, and generating renewable electricity, agrivoltaic systems offer measurable benefits for both farmers and the environment.

This project responds to the shared need for practical, field-tested demonstrations of agrivoltaic technology under Central European conditions. The project’s main objective is to design, install, and validate a smart vertical agrivoltaic system coupled with a phase-change material (PCM) thermal battery and a year-round greenhouse at the Czech Agrifood Research Center (CARC) in Prague-Ruzyně. The system combines four vertical bifacial photovoltaic rows (9–16 kWp) with an experimental crop plot (wheat and barley in rotation) and two identical greenhouses — one equipped with a PCM thermal battery (~69 kWh usable storage) and one grid-heated reference unit.

The project evaluates the agronomic, energy, environmental, and economic performance of this integrated system. Key indicators include crop yields and grain quality, in-canopy photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), soil and air microclimate, land-use efficiency (LER), thermal battery performance, greenhouse self-consumption rate, and carbon footprint. Collected data will also be used to calibrate an agrivoltaic simulation model to generalise findings for the wider Central European region.

Results and lessons learned will be actively shared with farmers, agronomists, agricultural engineers, students, policymakers, and research institutions — both in the Czech Republic and in Germany — through field demonstration days, student excursions, expert publications, infographics, and a dedicated project website and social media presence.