Combinations of Solar Concentrators with Agricultural Plants

A new trend involving the combination of solar concentrators and agricultural plants on the same piece of land offers the possibility of realizing both electricity generation and a good crop harvest. Authors analyze this situation for different countries, including Mexico, and based on authors’ experience regarding the development of new solar concentrator prototypes, authors’ primary objective was to describe the development of compact, light, and inexpensive solar concentrator prototypes that can be collocated on horizontal roofs. Authors’ second objective was to investigate the combination of such solar concentrator prototypes with agricultural plants on the same field. Thus, several studies related to the combination of renewable energy generation and agricultural crops were reviewed. Many such systems involving the combination of PV (Photovoltaic) panels with different types of vegetables exist in the USA, France (lettuce production), Japan (tomato production), India (aloe and corn), northern Italy (maize), Spain and México.