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AgriEngineering
Special Issues
Solar Energy Integration into Controlled-Environment Agriculture
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Solar Energy Integration into Controlled-Environment Agriculture

A special issue of AgriEngineering (ISSN 2624-7402).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 March 2027 | Viewed by 1366

Editor

Prof. Dr. Reda Hassanien Emam Hassanien

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Cairo, Egypt
Interests: solar energy applications in agricultural sector particularly; solar energy application in agricultural greenhouses (agro-photovoltaics; solar cooling; solar heating; and solar drying); agricultural bio-environment and energy engineering; environmental control in greenhouses (natural and mechanical ventilation; cooling and heating systems)

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global climate change and increasing water, energy, and food security challenges have intensified the demand for sustainable agricultural production systems. Controlled-environment agriculture using greenhouses enables precise regulation of temperature, humidity, light, and air composition, allowing year-round crop production with significantly higher yields than open-field cultivation. However, energy consumption in commercial greenhouses can account for 15–40% of total production costs, largely due to heating and cooling requirements.

Solar energy offers a clean, renewable, and widely available alternative, particularly for greenhouses located in remote or off-grid regions. Integrating solar energy technologies into agricultural land and greenhouse environmental control systems for heating, cooling, lighting, and irrigation presents a promising approach for reducing energy and water consumption while enhancing the economic and environmental sustainability of greenhouse agriculture.

Contributions could include, but are not limited to, the following themes:

  • Greenhouse-integrated photovoltaic (PVG) and photovoltaic–thermal (PVT) systems play a crucial role in supplying electrical and thermal energy for greenhouse environmental control systems.
  • The integration of different types of photovoltaic (PV) systems into agricultural land (Agri-voltaic) represents a promising approach for simultaneous food and energy production.
  • Greenhouse-integrated solar thermal technologies, including flat-plate collectors (FPCs), evacuated tube collectors (ETCs), and solar concentrators, require further investigation, as greenhouse heating demands cannot be fully met by conventional solar collectors alone. Enhancing the thermal performance of these systems through increased collector surface area or absorptance.
  • The integration of solar collectors with heat pumps of various typologies and thermal energy storage using various phase change materials (PCMs) are essential.
  • Under moderate climatic conditions, solar thermal collectors can be considered promising alternatives capable of supplying a substantial portion of the heating demand in agricultural greenhouses.

Prof. Dr. Reda Hassanien Emam Hassanien
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. AgriEngineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • photovoltaic-greenhouses (PVG)
  • agri-voltaic
  • PVT-greenhouses
  • energy consumption
  • water saving

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 7401 KB  
Article
A Flat Plate Solar Collector with a Backup Electric Heater for Heating Greenhouses in Egypt
by Reda Hassanien Emam Hassanien, Mohamed M. Ibrahim, Gang Pei and Eid N. Abd El Rahman
AgriEngineering 2026, 8(6), 225; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering8060225 - 4 Jun 2026
Viewed by 301
Abstract
Providing optimal temperatures in greenhouses is essential for cultivating high-temperature-demand crops in winter. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the feasibility of utilizing a flat plate solar collector (FPC) for heating greenhouses. A field experiment was conducted, complemented by simulations using the PolySun [...] Read more.
Providing optimal temperatures in greenhouses is essential for cultivating high-temperature-demand crops in winter. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the feasibility of utilizing a flat plate solar collector (FPC) for heating greenhouses. A field experiment was conducted, complemented by simulations using the PolySun V2023.11 software. The FPC system comprised two collectors, each with an aperture area of 2.24 m2, connected to a 300 L hot water tank. The water tank had an internal electric backup heater (2 kW) and a thermostat to regulate the hot water temperature. The experiment consisted of two greenhouses, each with an area of 50 m2. The first unheated greenhouse (UHGH) was used as the control, while the second heated greenhouse (HGH) was heated by a closed-loop system comprising copper pipes installed along the internal perimeter. Results revealed that the FPC significantly increased air temperature by 2.7 °C, and reduced relative humidity by 9.7% in the HGH compared to the UHGH. Simulated results showed that the annual generated energy of the FPC was 4830 kWh with a reduction of CO2 emission by ≈2.9 tones. The average thermal efficiency of the FPC was 44%, with a payback period of 8.5 years. In conclusion, the FPC could protect plants from low temperatures in winter. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Energy Integration into Controlled-Environment Agriculture)
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21 pages, 3995 KB  
Article
Scaling Vertically Integrated Agrivoltaic Systems: A GIS-Based Assessment of Energy Production and Power Grid Integration
by Baltasar Miras-Cabrera, Adela Ramos-Escudero, Carlos Toledo and Javier Padilla
AgriEngineering 2026, 8(6), 200; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering8060200 - 22 May 2026
Viewed by 251
Abstract
The rapid expansion of solar photovoltaics is intensifying competition for land and highlighting the need for scalable energy solutions that can be integrated into existing power systems without displacing agricultural activity. Once the technical and agronomic viability of agrivoltaic configurations has been demonstrated [...] Read more.
The rapid expansion of solar photovoltaics is intensifying competition for land and highlighting the need for scalable energy solutions that can be integrated into existing power systems without displacing agricultural activity. Once the technical and agronomic viability of agrivoltaic configurations has been demonstrated at field scale, a critical next step toward their market consolidation is the assessment of their deployment potential at regional scales from an energy systems and grid integration perspective. This study presents a GIS-based framework to evaluate the large-scale implementation of vertically integrated agrivoltaic systems, using vineyard landscapes in the Region of Murcia (southeastern Spain) as a representative case study. The analysis combines high-resolution land-use data, crop distribution, regulatory constraints on grid connection distances, and existing electrical infrastructure to quantify installable capacity, energy production, self-consumption potential, and grid accessibility. Results indicate that vertically mounted bifacial PV systems could reach up to 7.06 GWp, generating approximately 11.84 TWh/year, while revealing a pronounced spatial mismatch between optimal agrivoltaic production sites and current grid connection points. This distance-dependent distribution highlights the need for differentiated deployment strategies, balancing local self-consumption, grid reinforcement, and centralized injection. Beyond the specific case examined, the proposed approach provides a transferable framework for energy system planning, supporting grid-aware agrivoltaic deployment in diverse regions and regulatory contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Energy Integration into Controlled-Environment Agriculture)
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25 pages, 3480 KB  
Article
Spectral Selectivity and Microclimatic Buffering of Semi-Transparent Photovoltaics in Greenhouses: A Comparative Analysis of CdTe and a-Si Technologies for Agrivoltaic Applications
by Alejandro Cruz-Escabias, Jesús Montes-Romero, João Gabriel Bessa, Pedro J. Pérez-Higueras, Eduardo F. Fernández and Florencia Almonacid
AgriEngineering 2026, 8(5), 190; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering8050190 - 12 May 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 382
Abstract
Integrating semi-transparent photovoltaics (STPVs) into greenhouses offers a dual-use solution for land efficiency, although matching electricity generation with crop spectral needs remains a challenge. To address this, this study assesses the optical and microclimatic impact of Cadmium Telluride (CdTe, 50% transparency) and amorphous [...] Read more.
Integrating semi-transparent photovoltaics (STPVs) into greenhouses offers a dual-use solution for land efficiency, although matching electricity generation with crop spectral needs remains a challenge. To address this, this study assesses the optical and microclimatic impact of Cadmium Telluride (CdTe, 50% transparency) and amorphous Silicon (a-Si, 20%) technologies compared to a conventional control in a semi-arid Mediterranean climate. Spectral analysis revealed that CdTe aligned with chlorophyll absorption peaks, preserving a transparency window that yielded a 66% relative gain in biologically useful radiation over the blue-blocking a-Si. Furthermore, while both technologies significantly reduced Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), this shading served as a protective filter against supra-optimal irradiance, stabilizing the internal microclimate. In the control prototype, extreme vapour pressure deficits (VPDs approaching 9.0 kPa) drove maximum reference evapotranspiration (ET0) above 4.6 mm/day. In contrast, the STPV systems effectively capped ET0 at approximately 3.09 mm/day (CdTe) and 1.64 mm/day (a-Si) through their radiative attenuation, despite internal VPDs still reaching 6.5–7.0 kPa during peak summer. This decoupling resulted in drastic average ET0 reductions of 31.4% and 61.3%, respectively, while mitigating soil overheating by up to 17.8%. These findings demonstrate that specific STPV technologies transcend mere shading to function as passive climate resilience tools, naturally enforcing water conservation and physically disarming atmospheric aridity in high-radiation environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Energy Integration into Controlled-Environment Agriculture)
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