As land scarcity and land use conflicts are acknowledged as important barriers for the development of PV in many countries, Agrivoltaics and Floating PV provide a huge opportunity to achieve national energy targets for PV. Moreover, these integrated approaches to PV also offer the opportunity to solve concerns regarding the landscape transformation through an appropriate design. The key proposition is “combining land uses for multiple purposes on the same space with innovative designs and technologies”. Therefore, Agrivoltaics and Floating PV are more than just PV electricity generation technologies. For example, the partial shade of PV modules is beneficial for several crops and the modules themselves offer mechanical protection to the crops, and floating PV systems can be hybridised with existing hydropower stations. The lecture will provide an overview of the different technologies, the state-of-the-art in system designs and upcoming technology trends, but also address critical issues such as regulatory approvals, as well as social and environmental aspects.
Authors / Speakers: Thomas Reindl | SERIS & Alessandra Scognamiglio | ENEA
One of the plenary talks at the 8th World Conference for PV Energy Conversion (WCPEC-8) in September 2022 in Milano showed that “Integrated PV” (IPV) solutions on agricultural land and water bodies (inland and marine waters) alone could provide sufficient space even for the extreme scenario to power a future all-electric world that would require ~60 TWp of PV capacity. It is therefore important and timely to have a deeper discussion about the technical advancements in these novel deployment options and how we can speed up their adoption.
In the first part of the tutorial, we will discuss the wide field of “Agrivoltaics”, which was also a key topic of the 11th edition of the event Photovoltaics | Forms | Landscapes, held on the occasion of the 8th WCPEC in Milan. We will introduce the fundamentals of agrivoltaics, and the main issues relating to: definitions, existing normative and legislative issues; system typologies and technologies, performances. Examples will be given to show the state of the art of this technologies and existing challenges for its development. Specific issues such as landscape and social acceptance issues will be introduced, too. The potential of agrivoltaics will be addressed, taking into account studies carried out for specific regions and countries. The new IEA PVPS Action Group on Agrivoltaics will be presented.
The second part of the tutorial will focus on “Floating Solar” or “Floating PV”, starting with the different types of floating PV systems as well as latest information on the global installed capacity by regions, by float suppliers, and by reservoir types. This is based on SERIS’ database of >1200 floating PV projects in operation worldwide. A special consideration will be given to the hybridisation of floating PV with existing hydropower stations, which can range from simple co-location to the full conjoint operation. Also, the need for technical standards will be highlighted. After discussing the benefits and challenges of floating PV, the latest trend towards near-shore and off-shore deployment will be addressed, including a detailed assessment of the global and regional potential of near-shore floating PV.
Authors / Speakers: Thomas Reindl | SERIS & Alessandra Scognamiglio | ENEA
One of the plenary talks at the 8th World Conference for PV Energy Conversion (WCPEC-8) in September 2022 in Milano showed that “Integrated PV” (IPV) solutions on agricultural land and water bodies (inland and marine waters) alone could provide sufficient space even for the extreme scenario to power a future all-electric world that would require ~60 TWp of PV capacity. It is therefore important and timely to have a deeper discussion about the technical advancements in these novel deployment options and how we can speed up their adoption.
In the first part of the tutorial, we will discuss the wide field of “Agrivoltaics”, which was also a key topic of the 11th edition of the event Photovoltaics | Forms | Landscapes, held on the occasion of the 8th WCPEC in Milan. We will introduce the fundamentals of agrivoltaics, and the main issues relating to: definitions, existing normative and legislative issues; system typologies and technologies, performances. Examples will be given to show the state of the art of this technologies and existing challenges for its development. Specific issues such as landscape and social acceptance issues will be introduced, too. The potential of agrivoltaics will be addressed, taking into account studies carried out for specific regions and countries. The new IEA PVPS Action Group on Agrivoltaics will be presented.
The second part of the tutorial will focus on “Floating Solar” or “Floating PV”, starting with the different types of floating PV systems as well as latest information on the global installed capacity by regions, by float suppliers, and by reservoir types. This is based on SERIS’ database of >1200 floating PV projects in operation worldwide. A special consideration will be given to the hybridisation of floating PV with existing hydropower stations, which can range from simple co-location to the full conjoint operation. Also, the need for technical standards will be highlighted. After discussing the benefits and challenges of floating PV, the latest trend towards near-shore and off-shore deployment will be addressed, including a detailed assessment of the global and regional potential of near-shore floating PV.
