Agrivoltaics provide mutual benefits across the food–energy–water nexus in drylands

Barron-Gafford, Greg A.; Pavao-Zuckerman, Mitchell A.; Minor, Rebecca L.; Sutter, Leland F.; Barnett-Moreno, Isaiah; Blackett, Daniel T.; Thompson, Moses; Dimond, Kirk; Gerlak, Andrea K.; Nabhan, Gary P.; Macknick, Jordan E.

doi:10.1038/s41893-019-0364-5

Agrivoltaics provide mutual benefits across the food–energy–water nexus in drylands

Journal Article · Mon Sep 02 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Nature Sustainability

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0364-5· OSTI ID:1567040

^[1]; Pavao-Zuckerman, Mitchell A. ^[2]; Minor, Rebecca L. ^[1]; Sutter, Leland F. ^[1]; Barnett-Moreno, Isaiah ^[1]; Blackett, Daniel T. ^[1]; Thompson, Moses ^[3]; ^[1]; Gerlak, Andrea K. ^[1]; Nabhan, Gary P. ^[1]; Macknick, Jordan E. ^[4]

Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)
Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Tucson Unified School District, Tucson, AZ (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

The vulnerabilities of our food, energy and water systems to projected climatic change make building resilience in renewable energy and food production a fundamental challenge. We investigate a novel approach to solve this problem by creating a hybrid of colocated agriculture and solar photovoltaic (PV) infrastructure. We take an integrative approach - monitoring microclimatic conditions, PV panel temperature, soil moisture and irrigation water use, plant ecophysiological function and plant biomass production within this 'agrivoltaics' ecosystem and in traditional PV installations and agricultural settings to quantify trade-offs. We find that shading by the PV panels provides multiple additive and synergistic benefits, including reduced plant drought stress, greater food production and reduced PV panel heat stress. The results presented here provide a foundation and motivation for future explorations towards the resilience of food and energy systems under the future projected increased environmental stress involving heat and drought.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1567040

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA--6A20-72789

Journal Information:: Nature Sustainability, Journal Name: Nature Sustainability Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 2; ISSN 2398-9629

Publisher:: Springer NatureCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Agrivoltaics provide mutual benefits across the food–energy–water nexus in drylands

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