Investigation effectiveness of agrivoltaic towards solar PV
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Date
2019-06
Authors
Abdul Rashid Bin Abdul Kadir
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Abstract
Every year, with the increase of population growth, electricity demand increases 5% to 8% in Malaysia with a target of 10 GW by the year 2020 [1]. Along with the other countries, Malaysia has started to implement renewable energy as an alternative replacing fossil fuel. Although solar energy can be described as the most clean and sustainable energy sources in the world, large space is required for its utilization. On the other hand, gravel underlayment for solar PV site may contribute to a heat island effect which will increase the ambient temperature underneath it [2]. Therefore, the use of vegetation under the solar array could help reduce the ambient air temperatures by creating a cooler microclimate. In this research, various herbs are installed under PV modules. Java Tea (Orthosiphon Stamineus), Butterfly Wing (Mariposa Christia Vespertilionis) and Stevia (Stevia Rebaudiana) are chosen as experimental herbs under solar panel. The main aim for this work is to investigate effectiveness of agrivoltaic system towards solar PV. The result of this research showed there is slightly decrease in average ambient temperature of solar PV from 1.29 - 2.04 ºC, average solar panel temperature is decreased by 0.07 - 2.27 ºC and average output power is increased by 1.35 – 2.9 W. The herbs under agrivoltaic system shows good growth progress. The soil moisture under solar panel area can keep maintained for about 30% higher than the soil moisture under direct sunlight area. In the end, by referring to the results and references, it is verified that agrivoltaic does significantly reduce ambient temperature which later affect the efficiency of solar panel.