WORLD SOLAR DAY: FROM PLOUGHS TO PANELS, CULTIVATING A SOLAR-POWERED FUTURE

With benefits for food and energy production, agriphotovoltaics promise a dual harvest as well as prosperity for India's smallholder farmers

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In 1981, German scientists Adolf Goetzberger and Armin Zastrow published a foundational paper arguing that dual land use for food and energy could bring significant benefits. They proposed elevating solar modules by about 2 m above the ground to allow crops to grow underneath, giving rise to the concept of agriphotovoltaics (APVs).

APVs integrate solar energy generation with agricultural production, offering a model that maximises land-use efficiency while augmenting farmers' income. With APVs, farmers will also be able to move energy back to the grid at a predetermined feed-in tariff, forging new streams of income alongside agricultural ones.

To accommodate APVs, the on-site solar infrastructure will have to be designed such that cultivation is possible between rows of solar panels, a.k.a. interspace orientation, and in the area available beneath the elevated panels, or overhead-stilted orientation. There is a growing interest in APVs in India but in practice it is mostly limited to demonstrative pilots by research institutes or private developer-owned and -managed APV systems.

A recent report by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (coauthored by the authors of this article) examined an APV system in Najafgarh, Delhi. A farmer had leased his land to solar-energy company Sunmaster for 25 years to establish an APV facility.