Size and Dispatch Co-Optimisation of a Grid-Connected Agrivoltaic System

Agrivoltaic systems that leverage the opportunity of integrating solar photovoltaic (PV) systems into land used for agriculture, have been shown to provide an effective platform for a mutually beneficial cooperation between energy and food. However, the mainstream literature has failed to investigate the systematic design and dispatch considerations that must be made to ensure the robust and profit-maximising operation of a grid-connected agrivoltaic system from an energy perspective subject to meeting onsite load demands, such as irrigation pumps, centre pivot systems, and cow shed pumps. This necessitates formulating a coordinated, system-level strategic design and dispatch problem that considers the localised energy system and its individual components. Accordingly, this paper introduces a novel agrivoltaic system energy planning optimisation method with an integrated dispatch scheduling framework. The proposed method enables the consideration of augmenting value streams, such as temporal energy arbitrage with the grid, especially regarding the presence of behind-the-meter stationary battery storage devices and electric agricultural vehicles’ batteries. Furthermore, the proposed method has a general crop type-independent structure. This allows for greater adaptability of the method to different types of agrivoltaic systems. The effectiveness of the proposed method in improving the economic feasibility of grid-connected agrivoltaic systems is demonstrated based on simulation results obtained from its application to a conceptual agrivoltaic system backed by stationary and mobile battery storage systems, proposed for implementation in a rural location in Aotearoa New Zealand.