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Solar Energy for Sustainable Agriculture
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Solar Energy for Sustainable Agriculture

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 29067

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Abdelouahid Fouial

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (CIHEAM Bari), 70010 Valenzano, Italy
Interests: water resource management; renewable energy in agriculture; water–energy nexus; irrigation management; sustainable agriculture; rural development; optimization and modelling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Increasing agricultural production is crucial for improving the livelihood of millions of people, particularly in developing countries. Population growth, water scarcity, climate change, and conflicts have placed significant pressure on providing food for poor rural communities, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Many of these communities are mostly smallholder farmers relying on rainfed agriculture or traditional irrigation, leading to very low crop yield, low income, malnutrition, and poverty. Introducing well-managed, sustainable irrigation to smallholder farms can significantly improve crop and water productivity, as well as the overall sustainability of the communities they serve. However, advanced irrigation requires access to electricity, which is still very limited in many rural areas in the region. Solar energy—mainly photovoltaic (PV) systems—could be a feasible, long-term solution to promote sustainable agricultural systems. These PV systems can provide the electricity needed for water pumping and water-saving irrigation technologies for food production, as well as for post-harvest food processing and storage. Solar energy supported by proper policies, capacity building, and on-farm affordable irrigation water management technologies can reduce the pressure on the limited water resources while improving agricultural productivity, and thus, the livelihood of rural communities.

This Special Issue, “Solar Energy for Sustainable Agriculture”, aims to gather contributions that deal with advances in solar energy applications for sustainable agriculture, including affordable water saving technologies to improve agricultural productivity, particularly in poor rural communities. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Solar energy applications in agriculture: opportunities and challenges;
  • Agrivoltaic systems: opportunities, applications, and challenges;
  • Solar pumping technologies for farming and rural communities;
  • Optimization and decision support systems for the sustainable implementation of solar-powered agricultural systems;
  • On-farm affordable technologies to improve water and crop productivity;
  • Feasibility analyses and the socioeconomic impact of solar energy in rural communities;
  • The potential environmental impact of using solar energy in agriculture, control, and monitoring;
  • Financing mechanisms and policies to promote sustainable agricultural systems.

Dr. Abdelouahid Fouial
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes 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 2400 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

  • solar energy
  • PV systems
  • agrivoltaic
  • agricultural systems
  • advanced irrigation technologies
  • optimization
  • environmental impact
  • policy

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 16535 KiB  
Article
Power Generation Prediction for Photovoltaic System of Hose-Drawn Traveler Based on Machine Learning Models
by Dan Li, Delan Zhu, Tao Tao and Jiwei Qu
Processes 2024, 12(1), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12010039 - 22 Dec 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1414
Abstract
A photovoltaic (PV)-powered electric motor is used for hose-drawn traveler driving instead of a water turbine to achieve high transmission efficiency. PV power generation (PVPG) is affected by different meteorological conditions, resulting in different power generation of PV panels for a hose-drawn traveler. [...] Read more.
A photovoltaic (PV)-powered electric motor is used for hose-drawn traveler driving instead of a water turbine to achieve high transmission efficiency. PV power generation (PVPG) is affected by different meteorological conditions, resulting in different power generation of PV panels for a hose-drawn traveler. In the above situation, the hose-drawn traveler may experience deficit power generation. The reasonable determination of the PV panel capacity is crucial. Predicting the PVPG is a prerequisite for the reasonable determination of the PV panel capacity. Therefore, it is essential to develop a method for accurately predicting PVPG. Extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) is currently an outstanding machine learning model for prediction performance, but its hyperparameters are difficult to set. Thus, the XGBoost model based on particle swarm optimization (PSO-XGBoost) is applied for PV power prediction in this study. The PSO algorithm is introduced to optimize hyperparameters in XGBoost model. The meteorological data are segmented into four seasons to develop tailored prediction models, ensuring accurate prediction of PVPG in four seasons for hose-drawn travelers. The input variables of the models include solar irradiance, time, and ambient temperature. The prediction accuracy and stability of the model is then assessed statistically. The predictive accuracy and stability of PV power prediction by the PSO-XGBoost model are higher compared to the XGBoost model. Finally, application of the PSO-XGBoost model is implemented based on meteorological data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Energy for Sustainable Agriculture)
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20 pages, 4910 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Agrivoltaic Systems on Tomato Crop: A Case Study in Southern Italy
by Serine Mohammedi, Giovanna Dragonetti, Naouel Admane and Abdelouahid Fouial
Processes 2023, 11(12), 3370; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11123370 - 4 Dec 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3615
Abstract
Agrivoltaics, a system combining the production of agricultural crops and solar energy on the same land area, offers a potential solution to land use competition between different sectors. However, concerns have been raised regarding the impact of shade on plant growth under Agrivoltaic [...] Read more.
Agrivoltaics, a system combining the production of agricultural crops and solar energy on the same land area, offers a potential solution to land use competition between different sectors. However, concerns have been raised regarding the impact of shade on plant growth under Agrivoltaic Systems (AVSs). Numerous studies have explored the effects of AVSs shading on agricultural crops. However, most of these studies focused on shade-tolerant crops, leaving a gap in the understanding of how these systems affect shade-intolerant crops. To this end, this study was conducted in Bari, southern Italy, using two types of AVSs: conventional (Con) and semi-transparent (ST) panels. The objective was to assess the impacts of the different levels of shading on the tomato yield and fruit quality. Tomato cultivation occurred between May and August under various conditions: Con panels, ST panels, and Open Field. The results revealed that soil temperature decreased under both AVSs compared to in the open field conditions. However, the significant reduction in photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), up to 43% in ST and 67% in Con, led to yield reductions ranging between 28% and 58% in ST and Con, respectively. Nonetheless, AVSs demonstrated their potential to reduce irrigation water demand by over 15% in ST and more than 20% in Con. Interestingly, the AVSs reduced fruit size but improved certain fruit quality attributes, such as titratable acidity, which is closely correlated with fruit flavour. These findings highlight the challenges of cultivating shade-intolerant crops under AVSs in a Mediterranean climate, while temperate, dry conditions may offer more favourable prospects for agricultural production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Energy for Sustainable Agriculture)
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16 pages, 3186 KiB  
Article
Plasma Agricultural Nitrogen Fixation Using Clean Energies: New Attempt of Promoting PV Absorption in Rural Areas
by Qiyu Zheng, Liying Li, Zhihua Xue, Yanbin Liu, Dehua Zang, Zifeng Wang, Haowei Qu, Jiaxuan Yin and Lidi Wang
Processes 2023, 11(7), 2030; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11072030 - 7 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1768
Abstract
In recent years, a large number of countries have connected and distributed photovoltaics in remote rural areas, aiming to promote the use of clean energy in rural areas. The solar energy that is not used in time needs to be discarded, resulting in [...] Read more.
In recent years, a large number of countries have connected and distributed photovoltaics in remote rural areas, aiming to promote the use of clean energy in rural areas. The solar energy that is not used in time needs to be discarded, resulting in a large amount of wasted energy. Rural areas are closely related to agricultural production, and solar energy can be used for agricultural nitrogen fixation to supplement the nitrogen needed by crops and effectively use the upcoming waste of solar energy. A photovoltaic-driven plasma reactor for nitrogen fixation in agriculture was designed in this study. The air inlet and outlet holes are arranged above and below the reactor to facilitate air entry and directly interact with the gliding arc generated at the bottom of the electrode to achieve atmospheric nitrogen fixation in agriculture. The characteristics of gliding arc development in the process of nitrogen fixation in agriculture were studied experimentally. There are two discharge modes of the gliding arc discharge: one is steady arc gliding mode (A-G Mode), and the other is breakdown gliding mode (B-G Mode). By collecting discharge signals, different discharge modes of gliding arc discharge were analyzed, and the effect of the air flow rate on the discharge period and discharge mode ratio distribution is discussed. The effects of the air flow rate on the yield, specific energy input, and energy consumption in plasma agriculture were studied. The experimental results show that with an increase in the air flow rate, the B-G mode takes up a larger proportion and the gliding arc discharge period is shortened. However, the higher the proportion of the B-G mode, the more unfavorable the production of nitrogen oxides. Although the nitrogen oxides generated by the system are not particularly excellent compared with the Haber-Bosch ammonia process (H-B process), the access to distributed photovoltaic roofs in rural and remote areas can effectively use available resources like water, air, and solar, and avoid energy waste in areas where wind and solar are abandoned. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Energy for Sustainable Agriculture)
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Review

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27 pages, 6858 KiB  
Review
Agrivoltaic, a Synergistic Co-Location of Agricultural and Energy Production in Perpetual Mutation: A Comprehensive Review
by Aminata Sarr, Y. M. Soro, Alain K. Tossa and Lamine Diop
Processes 2023, 11(3), 948; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11030948 - 20 Mar 2023
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 20319
Abstract
Agrivoltaic systems, which consist of the combination of energy production by means of photovoltaic systems and agricultural production in the same area, have emerged as a promising solution to the constraints related to the reduction in cultivated areas due to solar panels used [...] Read more.
Agrivoltaic systems, which consist of the combination of energy production by means of photovoltaic systems and agricultural production in the same area, have emerged as a promising solution to the constraints related to the reduction in cultivated areas due to solar panels used in agricultural production systems. They also enable optimization of land use and reduction in conflicts over land access, in order to meet the increasing demand for agricultural products and energy resulting from rapid population growth. However, the selected installation configurations, such as elevation, spacing, tilt, and choice of panel technology used, can have a negative impact on agricultural and/or energy production. Thus, this paper addresses the need for a review that provides a clear explanation of agrivoltaics, including the factors that impact agricultural and energy production in agrivoltaic systems, types of panel configurations and technologies to optimize these systems, and a synthesis of modelling studies which have already been conducted in this area. Several studies have been carried out in this field to find the appropriate mounting height and spacing of the solar panels that optimize crop yields, as this later can be reduced by the shade created with the solar panels on the plants. It was reported that yields have been reduced by 62% to 3% for more than 80% of the tested crops. To this end, an optimization model can be developed to determine the optimal elevation, spacing, and tilt angle of the solar panels. This model would take into account factors that influence crop growth and yield, as well as factors that affect the performance of the photovoltaic system, with the goal of maximizing both crop yield and energy production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Energy for Sustainable Agriculture)
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