Since the early 1960s, the global population has doubled and is projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, intensifying the challenge of food security, a crisis further worsened by climate change. Rising greenhouse gas concentrations and increasing frequencies of droughts and extreme weather phenomena, pose significant risks to agricultural stability. While solar energy is a fundamental tool for the decarbonization of the economy and the green energy transition, traditional photovoltaic plants require extensive land areas, compared to other conventional energy technologies. In densely populated regions with scarce fertile land, this creates a direct conflict between energy and agricultural sectors. Agrivoltaic technology addresses this competition by integrating food production and energy generation on the same land unit. This thesis utilizes MATLAB to estimate the energy and crop yields of an agrivoltaic plant located in southern Italy through the development of a shading model. This study evaluates the performance of three distinct crop varieties, lettuce, tomato and grape, under the three primary agrivoltaic configurations: fixed tilted, fixed vertical and tracking panels. The simulated outcomes subsequently serve as the fundamental data for the analysis of the power plant’s economic viability. By assessing the Land Equivalent Ratio (LER), the optimal system configuration is identified for each agricultural scenario. The results indicate that the configuration maximizing the LER while complying with Italian national regulations is the fixed tilted system for all crops. Specifically, at an inter row distance of 6 meters, the LER reaches 1.558 for lettuce, 1.904 for tomato and 1.714 for grape. The corresponding economic analysis reveals that at this specific distance the Net Present Values (NPV) on a 30 years period oscillates between 3.5 M€ for fixed configurations and 4 M€ for tracking systems across all crop types. Notably, the data suggests that for row distances exceeding 8 meters, the vertical panel configuration becomes more economically advantageous than the other systems for all evaluated crops.
Dall’inizio degli anni ‘60, la popolazione globale è raddoppiata e raggiungerà i 9,8 miliardi entro il 2050, intensificando la sfida della sicurezza alimentare, crisi ulteriormente aggravata dai cambiamenti climatici. L’aumento delle concentrazioni di gas serra e la crescente frequenza di siccità e fenomeni meteorologici estremi rappresentano rischi significativi per la stabilità agricola. Sebbene l’energia solare sia fondamentale per la decarbonizzazione dell’economia e la transizione energetica verde, gli impianti fotovoltaici tradizionali richiedono ampie superfici di terreno rispetto ad altre tecnologie energetiche convenzionali, creando potenzialmente un conflitto diretto con il settore agricolo. La tecnologia agrivoltaica affronta questa competizione integrando la produzione alimentare e la generazione di energia sulla stessa unità di terreno. La tesi utilizza MATLAB per stimare le rese energetiche e agricole di un impianto agrivoltaico situato nell’Italia meridionale, attraverso lo sviluppo di un modello di ombreggiamento. Vengono valutate tre diverse colture, lattuga, pomodoro e vite, nelle tre principali configurazioni fotovoltaiche: pannelli fissi inclinati, pannelli fissi verticali e pannelli a inseguimento solare. I risultati delle simulazioni costituiscono i dati di base per l’analisi economica dell’impianto. I risultati individuano il sistema fisso inclinato come la configurazione che massimizza il Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) nel rispetto della normativa nazionale italiana per tutte le colture considerate; in particolare, a una distanza tra le file di 6 m, il LER raggiunge valori pari a 1.558 per la lattuga, 1.904 per il pomodoro e 1.714 per la vite. L’analisi economica evidenzia che a tale distanza il Net Present Value (NPV) su un periodo di 30 anni oscilla tra 3,5 M€ per le configurazioni fisse e 4 M€ per i sistemi a inseguimento solare, per tutte le tipologie di colture analizzate. Inoltre, emerge che per distanze tra le file superiori a 8 m la configurazione con pannelli verticali diventa economicamente più vantaggiosa rispetto agli altri sistemi per tutte le specie vegetali.
Comparison and analysis of different technologies for agrivoltaic systems
Baio, Pietro
2024/2025
Abstract
Since the early 1960s, the global population has doubled and is projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, intensifying the challenge of food security, a crisis further worsened by climate change. Rising greenhouse gas concentrations and increasing frequencies of droughts and extreme weather phenomena, pose significant risks to agricultural stability. While solar energy is a fundamental tool for the decarbonization of the economy and the green energy transition, traditional photovoltaic plants require extensive land areas, compared to other conventional energy technologies. In densely populated regions with scarce fertile land, this creates a direct conflict between energy and agricultural sectors. Agrivoltaic technology addresses this competition by integrating food production and energy generation on the same land unit. This thesis utilizes MATLAB to estimate the energy and crop yields of an agrivoltaic plant located in southern Italy through the development of a shading model. This study evaluates the performance of three distinct crop varieties, lettuce, tomato and grape, under the three primary agrivoltaic configurations: fixed tilted, fixed vertical and tracking panels. The simulated outcomes subsequently serve as the fundamental data for the analysis of the power plant’s economic viability. By assessing the Land Equivalent Ratio (LER), the optimal system configuration is identified for each agricultural scenario. The results indicate that the configuration maximizing the LER while complying with Italian national regulations is the fixed tilted system for all crops. Specifically, at an inter row distance of 6 meters, the LER reaches 1.558 for lettuce, 1.904 for tomato and 1.714 for grape. The corresponding economic analysis reveals that at this specific distance the Net Present Values (NPV) on a 30 years period oscillates between 3.5 M€ for fixed configurations and 4 M€ for tracking systems across all crop types. Notably, the data suggests that for row distances exceeding 8 meters, the vertical panel configuration becomes more economically advantageous than the other systems for all evaluated crops.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2026_03_Baio.pdf
accessibile in internet per tutti
Descrizione: Testo della tesi
Dimensione
4.86 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
4.86 MB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in POLITesi sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
https://hdl.handle.net/10589/252283