Agriphotovoltaic System to Improve Land Productivity and Revenue of Farmer
Nimay Chandra Giri, Ramesh Chandra Mohanty, Rabindra Nath Shaw, Surendra Poonia, Mohit Bajaj, Youcef Belkhier
Abstract
Aggressive growth of the world population influences land crisis, energy-food demand, climate change, and the income of developing countries like India. More than 50% of the Indian manpower hangs on agriculture for livelihood and provides around 20% of the country's GDP. In this context, a co-development system of the land area has been encouraged as a synergetic solution for these issues. We suggest calling this an “agriphotovoltaic” or “agrivoltaic” system, where sunlight is mutually shared between solar photovoltaic panels and crops. The system is good practice for those places where sun radiation is accessible adequately and land productivity is likely low. This paper summarizes the dual land-use technique to improve both land productivity and revenue of farmers. The important performance parameters of the system such as land equivalent ratio, revenue from solar, revenue from crops, and payback period have been found as 1.41, 52211 USD, 1535 USD, and 8 years respectively. Further, the government targets can be fulfilled by adopting new technology, efficient design, and installation of the system in the country.