Articles
Agrivoltaic systems, an opportunity to mitigate the risk of climatic hazards in apricot orchards while producing renewable energy
Article number
1450_7
Pages
53 – 60
Language
English
Abstract
Temperate fruits orchards in southern France face strong climatic hazards such as late frost during flowering or fruit set, or high temperature and drought during fruit growth and after harvest.
Agrivoltaic systems modify the crop environment, especially irradiation and temperature.
They can therefore positively mitigate those hazards, but at the same time negatively affect fruit production through excessive shading for instance.
Dynamic agrivoltaic system (AVD) is a photovoltaic system with controlled mobile panels that can be used to optimize the balance between climatic hazards mitigation and light requirement for fruit trees.
This requires AVD steering strategies that are relevant to the biological and environmental needs of the species cultivated below.
These species-specific needs may vary between day and night, and over the year according to the species phenological stages.
Some results are already available for vineyards, apple and pear orchards in Europe, but no result has been published yet for stone fruits.
Regarding early apricot cultivars, AVD could mitigate damages due to late frost, excess of irradiation, drought and high temperature.
Optimization of panels movements requires a better understanding of the impacts of dynamic shading on apricot trees production.
This paper first reviews the effects of agrivoltaic systems on the environmental conditions and behaviour of fruit trees.
It then presents an experimental study carried out in the south of France on young and adult apricot orchards to fill the knowledge gap on this species.
The study aims at i) creating a prediction tool to evaluate irradiation and canopy temperature under AVD according to site location, date, and structure characteristics; and ii) assessing the effects of different AVD steering modalities on vegetative growth, ecophysiological processes and fruit production of apricot trees.
The applied objective is to define AVD steering strategies to maximise both apricot production and electricity production.
Agrivoltaic systems modify the crop environment, especially irradiation and temperature.
They can therefore positively mitigate those hazards, but at the same time negatively affect fruit production through excessive shading for instance.
Dynamic agrivoltaic system (AVD) is a photovoltaic system with controlled mobile panels that can be used to optimize the balance between climatic hazards mitigation and light requirement for fruit trees.
This requires AVD steering strategies that are relevant to the biological and environmental needs of the species cultivated below.
These species-specific needs may vary between day and night, and over the year according to the species phenological stages.
Some results are already available for vineyards, apple and pear orchards in Europe, but no result has been published yet for stone fruits.
Regarding early apricot cultivars, AVD could mitigate damages due to late frost, excess of irradiation, drought and high temperature.
Optimization of panels movements requires a better understanding of the impacts of dynamic shading on apricot trees production.
This paper first reviews the effects of agrivoltaic systems on the environmental conditions and behaviour of fruit trees.
It then presents an experimental study carried out in the south of France on young and adult apricot orchards to fill the knowledge gap on this species.
The study aims at i) creating a prediction tool to evaluate irradiation and canopy temperature under AVD according to site location, date, and structure characteristics; and ii) assessing the effects of different AVD steering modalities on vegetative growth, ecophysiological processes and fruit production of apricot trees.
The applied objective is to define AVD steering strategies to maximise both apricot production and electricity production.
Publication
Authors
C. Jardon, M. Saudreau, I. Grechi, F. Boudon, P. Guerrier, F. Normand
Keywords
dynamic shading, ecophysiology, irradiation, photovoltaics, Prunus armeniaca, yield components
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