Agricultural Grid Connected Photovoltaic System Design and Simulation

in Egypt by using PVSYST Software

HANAA M.FARGHALLY, EMAD A. SWEELEM, MOHAMED I. ABU EL-SEBAH,

FATHY A. SYAM

Electronics Research Institute, Cairo, Joseph Tito St, Huckstep, El Nozha,

Cairo Governorate 4473221,

recommend shade tolerance for some plant varieties due to insufficient information on shading conditions for most

plants. The use of shading panels (photovoltaic panels) requires more crop-specific research to determine the

optimal percentage of panels and their placement that will not reduce agricultural yields. Crop yield variation

versus field shading and availability to maximize the system require extensive research. This study aims to develop

a standard procedure for designing an agricultural grid-connected photovoltaic power generation system for solar

power generation in an agricultural area in Bahteem, Egypt. The technical and annual performance of the grid-

connected PV system was simulated using PV Syst software. The paper started with a pre-feasibility study of a

grid-connected photovoltaic system using PV Syst. Software with an extensive database of meteorological data,

including global daily horizontal solar irradiance, and a database of various renewable energy system components

from different manufacturers. In this work, a comprehensive literature review of agricultural solar photovoltaic

Received: April 16, 2022. Revised: November 2, 2022. Accepted: November 21, 2022. Published: December 31, 2022.

1 Introduction

By 2050, the world population is projected to grow to

9.6 billion. At the same time, people are looking for

the basic needs of a decent life, which increases the

demand for food and energy. Population increases

also affect per capita land availability and land

abandonment of agricultural land, leading to a food

crisis. Arid regions with severely degraded land

threaten severe desertification. Deserts continue to

increase around the world compared to agricultural

photovoltaic systems (AVS) have been identified as

Depending on climate and cultivar choice, combining

however, crop yields increased as solar panels

relieved some of the stress on plants from heat and

UV damage.AVS has been shown to benefit plants

grown under photovoltaic panels (PVP) and

themselves [6]. According to Marrou, Dufour, et al.

Plants in the shade of photovoltaic panels increase

yield because evaporation is reduced by 10-30% when

available sunlight is 50-70%. Therefore, agri-PV

systems may be suitable for dry areas or periods of

drought due to reduced water requirements (Marrou et

Gafford et al,). Supporting a 60% increase in field

productivity for these systems increases in 60% -70%.

The agri-voltaic system has been proposed as a mixed

system, combining photovoltaic with agriculture at the

same time on the same land to capture solar energy,

for both energy generation and food production while

maximizing the solar efficiency on the land.More than

three decades ago, in 1982, Goetzberger and Zastrow

introduced the idea of AVSRecently, several

commercial AVS plants and small-scale research

population density or a little amount of land, including

hilly areas and islands (Dinesh and Pearce) [9].

Although many synergistic side effects are possible,

semi-arid and arid regions are predicted to have the

most potential (Marrou et al.; Ravi et al.). Here,

intense solar radiation and associated water losses

frequently have a negative impact on agricultural

growth, [10]. In PV installations, it has been

demonstrated that water consumption efficiency rises

underneath the panels (HassanpourAdeh et al.);

contains solar panels which are primarily in a grid-tied

2.1 The Agricultural Photovoltaic System

Design

The design of the AVS includes the design of grid-

connected photovoltaic power generation and the

establishment of a co-production crop-growing

system. The authors will consider the design of the

agricultural system in another paper. Below, is a user-

friendly explanation of the many phases needed in

creating the grid-connected solar PV system in a

creation of shading. This shading prevents the harmful

effects of excessive sunlight and limits evaporation

during periods of peak evaporative demand. The

plants that will benefit the most from this system will

be plants with high water demands and plants that are

not water-stress tolerant.

Fig. 1: The proposed agricultural photovoltaic system

performance criteria, PV modules can be selected

above the ground with a power generation capacity of

angle. The tilt angle is not the theoretical optimum tilt

angle equal to the latitude. This may be the result of

optimization between reducing shading to increase

panel rows and increasing power production.

We assume that the system is directly connected to the

grid and has no load. The panels must be lifted first.

The height depends on the height of the crop and also

on the height of the agricultural machinery used for

transparent or translucent modules can be used. The

best solution may be to install bifacial solar panels.

They are translucent cells that trap radiation on their

sides. The back of the panel is also a layer of silicon,

rather than an opaque black film like traditional

panels. This allows part of the radiation to pass

through the module. They record direct and diffuse

solar radiation. This improves overall efficiency.

Fig. 4 &Fig. 5 show the optimized Si-mono bifacial

Table 1. Incident global radiation (GlobInc), solar

Fig. 13 shows the PV power plant's normalized

production. It presented system losses, significant

inverter output, and PV array collection losses. The

production and losses of monthly useful energy per

kWh are displayed clearly. These normalized

products—standardized variables for assessing the

performance of PV systems—are established under

the IEC rules. The collecting losses, or PV array

capture losses, are 0.73 kWh/kWp/day. The solar

energy generated is 4.99 kWh/kWp/day whereas the

The array loss diagram, which represents the different

losses in the system, is shown in Fig.14. The global

irradiation is 1955 kWh/m2 on the horizontal plane.

The effective irradiance of the collector, however, is

or array, electricity or electrical energy is generated.

After PV conversion, the array's nominal energy at

standard testing conditions (STC) is 828.098MWh.

Fig. 14: The array loss diagram simulation outcome

a better guide for beginners and solar practitioners

who are interested in installing solar-based grid-

connected PV systems and can also use PVSYST

software to accurately estimate various losses in the

system. A great advantage of PVSYS is that you can

create a complete installation report and check the

power output and losses in the system. Simulation

results for agricultural grid-connected PV systems

show a system yield of 726.63 MWh/year and the

performance ratio is 83.8 %. The proposed system

saves fuel and has little impact on the environment.

References:

[1] Adam, D. (2022) “World population hits eight

billion — here’s how researchers predict it will

grow,” Nature [Preprint]. Available at:

https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03720-6.

[2] Feng, J. et al. (2020) “Can climate change

influence agricultural GTFP in arid and semi-

arid regions of Northwest China?,” Journal of

Arid Land, 12(5), pp. 837–853. Available at:

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-020-0073-y.

[4] International Renewable Energy Agency

IRENA. Renewable Power Generation Costs in

https://www.irena.org/

/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2020/

Jun/IRENA_Power_Generation_Costs_2019.pd

f.

[5] Goetzberger A, Zastrow A. On the coexistence

of solar-energy conversion and plant cultivation.

Int J Solar Energy 1982; 1(1):55–69.

[6] Ben Mariem, S. et al. (2021) “Climate change,

Available at: