Agricultural Practices Appropriate for Agrivoltaics

Towards a Customised Guideline for Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

In striving toward a target of 100% renewable electricity generation by 2030 as part of wider global concerns of climate change and the integral role that energy production plays within this, Aotearoa New Zealand will have to mitigate the increased strain on available land resources and look toward multi-use land initiatives in the uptake of utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) generation. Agrivoltaic systems, integrating PV arrays with agricultural production, have been defined and tested internationally and offer a solution to Aotearoa New Zealand in dealing with over-allocation of limited land resources, where 42% of the total land area, or over 11 million hectares, are already dedicated to agriculture. Owing to the relatively recent advancements in the technologies and prerequisites for agrivoltaic systems, as well as diverse agricultural practices and systems worldwide, agrivoltaics require customized guidelines for each specific location where they are introduced. The German DIN SPEC 91434 is an example of such a guideline. The goal of this research is to contribute to the development of a guideline for Aotearoa New Zealand. This guideline will look to understand key agrivoltaic technologies and configurations as they pertain to certain crop types and agricultural practices, aligning these with the key agricultural sectors and crop types within the country, then looking to how agrivoltaics can further integrate with the sector goals. The guideline definitions will flow into a matrix tool for the farming community wishing to implement agrivoltaic systems, streamlining the process in which such systems can be implemented in Aotearoa New Zealand.