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The Agrivoltaic Potential of Canada

A peer-reviewed version of this preprint was published in:
Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3228. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043228

Submitted:

19 January 2023

Posted:

23 January 2023

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Abstract
Canada has committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by increasing the non-emitting share of electricity generation to 90% by 2030. As solar energy costs have plummeted, agrivoltaics (co-development of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and agriculture) provide an economic path to these goals. This study quantifies agrivoltaic potential in Canada by province using geographical information system analysis of agricultural areas and numerical simulations. Systems modeled would enable conventional farming of field crops to continue (and potentially increase yield) by using bifacial PV for single-axis tracking and vertical system configurations. Between a quarter (vertical) to more than one third (single axis tracking) of Canada’s electrical energy needs can be provided solely by agrivoltaics using only 1% of current agricultural lands. These results show that agrivoltaics could be a major contributor to sustainable electricity generation and provide the ability for Canada to render the power generation sector net zero/GHG emission free. It is clear that the potential of agrivoltaic-based solar energy production in Canada far outstrips current electric demand and can thus be used to electrify and decarbonize transportation, heating, expand economic opportunities by powering the burgeoning computing sector, and export green electricity to the U.S. to help eliminate their dependence on fossil fuels.
Keywords: 
agriculture
;  
agrivoltaic
;  
climate policy
;  
Canada
;  
energy policy
;  
farming
;  
land use
;  
photovoltaic
;  
solar energy
;  
renewable energy
Subject: 
Engineering  -   Energy and Fuel Technology

1. Introduction

Due to perpetual decline in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems costs [1,2], the least expensive source of electricity generation is now solar energy [3,4]. The cost reductions have become substantial enough that PV-generated electricity can be used to subsidize heat pumps, which enables the profitable electrification of gas-based heating in Canada [5]. In addition, the current operational cost of electric vehicles (EVs) warrants electrification of transport [6], which has the potential to be a major economic engine in Canada [7,8,9]. Lower-cost solar electricity only further incentivizes this transition. Currently, solar based electricity constitutes less than 1% of total electricity generation [10]; however, there is clearly an economic demand for a massive growth in PV to offset fossil-fuel electricity generation, heating fuel, and transportation fuel.
Residence in cities has increased worldwide [11], and Canada also has followed this trend with its four largest urban regions (the Calgary-Edmonton corridor, Southern Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland, and the Extended Golden Horseshoe in Ontario) currently comprising more than half (51%) of the population [12]. As the cost of PV systems continues to decline, more land is needed for the installation of utility scale PV systems to power densely-populated localities with sustainable electricity. Such PV systems are generally situated in rural agricultural areas [13]. This has the potential to become an issue with rural residents like those observed with wind power siting conflicts [14,15], and thus a steppingstone to conflicts over large-scale PV deployment due to apprehensions of possible impedance of agricultural production [16,17,18,19,20]. As the world population continues to increase (1.15%/year) [21], such land-use conflicts could intensify as the requirement of food production increases [22]. Historic approaches to convert farmland to a source of energy (i.e. ethanol fuel [23,24]) have proven counterproductive as it increased food costs as well as global hunger [25]. With a population growth rate of 0.86% year [26], Canada is already under intense pressure to convert farmland into housing [27,28]. There is a long list of studies that indicate a solution to the energy-land use issue could be through agrivoltaics: the dual use of land for both electricity generation via solar photovoltaic systems and farming [29,30,31,32,33]. An increase in PV systems deployments in Canada is beneficial for both local and global environments as solar energy is a sustainable energy source [34]. It shows particular promise in Canada when applied as a dual use on agricultural land [29]. Photovoltaics is a net energy producer, which means the energy consumed during its production is generated multiple times over its warranty lifespan of 25 to 30 years [35], with its technical lifetime being much longer than this [36,37,38]. The environmental returns become even more favorable as efficiency of PV systems continues its rise [39] and the energy payback period for PV is now less than a year [40].
Canada is committed to playing its role in the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and has committed to increase its share of electricity generation through non-emitting sources to 90% by 2030 [41]. Agrivoltaics deployment would solve the issue of land use conflicts on agricultural lands and has the potential to substantially reduce national GHG emissions and help Canada move to renewable energy for electricity, heating, and transport. Previous research has quantified the agrivoltaic potential in the province of Ontario [29] and reviewed agrivoltaic-related policy for the province of Alberta [42], however, no comprehensive investigation has been made for the sustainable power potential of large-scale agrivoltaics deployment in Canada. To fill that knowledge gap, this paper first reviews the benefits of agrivoltaics and previous agrivoltaic crop studies that could be relevant to Canada. Then, it quantifies the potential of agrivoltaics in Canada. Geographic information systems (GIS) analysis of farming areas in each province of Canada is integrated with PV simulations to achieve this. Sensitivity runs are performed for vertical-mounted and single axis tracking PV systems. Energy output aggregated for each province and territory through agrivoltaics is compared with current electricity requirement in Canada. Finally, methods to enable large-scale agrivoltaics are reviewed from policy pathways identified globally.

2. Agrivoltaics Benefits

Agrivoltaics provides multiple benefits and services, which are summarized in Figure 1.
The first two agrivoltaic benefits come directly from the fact that PV systems generate renewable electricity and that when this green electricity offsets fossil-fuel-generated electricity, GHG emissions are reduced [43]. This in turn reduces global climate change and the long list of adverse effects on the environment and the economy [44]. Agrivoltaics also has the potential to benefit water systems by improving farm water efficiency and water conservation [45,46,47,48]. Agrivoltaic arrays can be used to power both drip irrigation [49], which is far more efficient than spraying, and vertical growing [50], which uses a fraction of the water of field-based crops.
Most importantly, many studies show agrivoltaics increases crop yield for a wide variety of crops, which include:
Due to the modest or even substantial positive impacts on yield of the wide variety of crops summarized above, the land use efficiency increases for agrivoltaics over side-by-side farming and PV [63], and thus, the land productivity could increase by 35–73% globally [64]. Agrivoltaic arrays create microclimates beneath the PV modules that alter air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and soil moisture [61]. This microclimate is often beneficial to crops because the PV acts as a shield to protect crops from excess solar energy. Agrivoltaic systems also acts as wind shields and protect plants/cultivars from heavy wind loads [65]. This same PV-shield concept can protect crops from hail, while simultaneously increasing PV performance due to lower operating temperatures created by the crops beneath the modules [30,54,66]. Agrivoltaic microclimates also can mitigate soil erosion [67] and can even be used to rehabilitate deserts to grow plants in deserts [68] and barren land [67].
Agrivoltaics, when designed appropriately, can minimize agricultural displacement for energy [33,64,69]. It maintains local agricultural employment and continues to enable local food production that provides the environmental and health benefits of reducing the distance food travels [70,71,72,73]. Along with the known health benefits from fresh food, agrivoltaics decreases the many health problems associated with fossil-fuel combustion by displacing these fuels [73]. Thus, agrivoltaics can both directly and indirectly improve human health and prevent premature deaths [74]. Agrivoltaics also helps to mitigate Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions [75]. Scope 1 emissions reduction is due to reduced travel/commute of products that traditionally need to be remotely produced and brought on to farms for cultivation such as fuel, electricity, and fertilizers – agrivoltaics enables on-farm production of these products. Scope 2 emissions reduction is achieved as farming operations can use electric vehicles which can be charged from electricity generated on-farm via agrivoltaic technology. The same electricity can be used for other farming operations. Scope 3 emissions reduction is possible if electric vehicles are used to transport the produce from farm which can again be charged using on-farm generated electricity. Agrivoltaics also increases the crop revenue for a given acre [76], which can help farmers economically. In addition, as PV is a capital asset that generates value which increases with inflation, it can be viewed as a financial means to hedge inflation during times of high inflation (e.g., 2021 and 2022) [77]. Agrivoltaics can be coupled to large loads from computing facilities such as those running AI, server farms and cryptocurrency miners [78]. There is a particularly good potential symbiosis between server waste heat, greenhouses, and agrivoltaics for powering both systems [79]. Partially transparent PV can be integrated into greenhouse glazing itself, providing further coupling between solar electricity generation and food production [80,81,82].
Agrivoltaic-generated electricity can also be used to provide direct farm inputs such as on-farm production of nitrogen fertilizer [83] and renewable fuels like anhydrous ammonia [84] or hydrogen [85,86,87]. Agrivoltaics can be used for EV charging for on-farm use or to sell as a commodity, particularly if a farm is located next to a major road that is appropriate for an EV charging park, which in turn would help to accelerate the electrification of transport by reducing range anxiety.
Agrivoltaic systems are appropriate over a vast array of different scales. Generally, agrivoltaics are considered for large-scale (utility-scale) applications; however, even for a home planter, parametric open-source cold-frame agrivoltaic systems are feasible [88]. The technology can operate with a variety of shade tolerance in crops. For instance, full array density PV modules work well with shade tolerant crops, while less dense PV systems are favorable for shade intolerant crops [89]. East/West facing vertical bifacial photovoltaics can be a preferred scheme for agrivoltaics with field crops using conventional farm equipment [89]. By increasing the installation height of PV arrays, more irradiance and bifacial gain is observed for bifacial modules [90]. Another advantage of elevating the height of PV panels is the ease of operation of agricultural machinery. Increasing inter-row spacing between modules benefits ground irradiation; however, it also reduces electrical output for a given area [90]. With agrivoltaics row spacing greater than conventional PV farms the capacity factor would be increased due to freer air flow resulting in lower operating temperatures as well as a radically reduced row-to-row shading. A small increase in the DC losses would be expected because of longer cable lengths, but overall the agrivoltaics system would provide economic advantages be enabling more land to be used in total. South facing systems are beneficial for farming shade tolerant crops during the summer, whereas east-west vertical arrays are beneficial during non-summer seasons and are hence advantageous for permanent crops (e.g., species that are harvested over many seasons like grapes) [90].
Agrivoltaics technology is already used in Canada with projects such as the Arnprio tri-part agrivoltaics which includes a monarch butterfly conservation subproject, a bee and honey production subproject, and a solar grazing and natural weed cutting subproject [91]. At present, most agrivoltaics systems employed in Canada consist of traditional solar PV farms, which are also used for grazing sheep. Such systems are beneficial for the sheep as they provide thermal protection [92] and improved quality grazing areas [93], as well as for the PV systems as the sheep alleviate the cost of weed removal. Life cycle analysis of such agrivoltaic sheep operations show that they are environmentally beneficial [94], but fail to reach the full potential of agrivoltaics that are designed around crop production.
Unfortunately, Canada is behind Europe, Asia, and the U.S. in agrivoltaic deployments. Countries that are more aggressive in adopting agrivoltaics are expected to gain a competitive advantage due to the benefits outlined in Figure 1. Being the fifth largest agricultural exporter globally [95], Canada’s motivation to keep up with novel agricultural technologies is high. As PV-generated electricity is already a low-cost option (i.e., Alberta PV is currently at CAD$47/MWh for a power purchase agreement (PPA) [96]) and agrivoltaics has all the benefits summarized in Figure 1, future utility-scale PV installations in Canada could favor agrivoltaics. The remainder of this article will determine the potential for agrivoltaics in Canada if such a policy were to be pursued.

3. Materials and Methods

The study is carried out to determine agrivoltaics potential in Canada using 1% of the existing available farmland in Canada. First, the total solar potential across Canada was determined using a vector dataset that estimates photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays across the country [97]. From this layer, the area representing the cropland in each province (Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia, Quebec, and the Maritimes combined) was extracted based on the 2015 Land Cover of Canada 30 m spatial resolution raster dataset [98]. ArcGIS Pro 2.9.0 with the Spatial Analyst toolbox was used to achieve this. It should be pointed out that “pastureland” was excluded from the dataset although it could increase the agrivoltaic potential of Canada further. This consideration is left for future work. The total conventional PV potential-area for each province was then determined from the area of the cropland raster cells and average PV potential of each.
Locations in each major solar flux grouping were used to model agrivoltaic systems in the opensource System Advisor Model 2022 (SAM) [100] using Heliene 144HC-460 bifacial PV modules [101]. One percent of agricultural land was calculated for each province in Canada as the area of interest. To determine the configuration of PV systems in this piece of land, the area was considered as a square and length of one side was calculated by taking the square root. Two distinct agrivoltaics systems are considered for the analysis: 1) vertical (south-facing, tilt 90°) and 2) single axis tracking (horizontal, Tilt 0° – which is the default setting in SAM for single axis tracking modelling). The design of a single array of vertical PV takes up a width of 4.8m with an installed PV capacity of 2,700 W [102]. The design of a single array of single axis tracking system takes a width of 23 m and depth of 4 m with an installed PV panel capacity of 15,000 W [103].
The length of one side of square land area is divided by the width of array (4.8 m for a vertical system and 23 m for a single axis tracking system) to determine the total number of arrays in one row. To calculate the number of rows on the piece of land, the length of one side is divided by 20 m for both systems to ensure sufficient distance for farm equipment mobility – the inter-row spacing considered for agrivoltaics system. Once the number of rows is ascertained, then using the number of vertical and single axis tracking arrays in a single row, the total number of arrays in an area is determined. Next, the product of total number of arrays and installed PV capacity on a single array (2,700 W for vertical system and 15,000 W for single axis tracking system) provides the total installed PV capacity on the agricultural land. The following locations were chosen for each province based on the energy yield potentials from GIS analysis.
  • Ontario (London, Chatham, Gameland)
  • Alberta (Edmonton, Drumheller)
  • Saskatchewan (Northern Pine, Regina)
  • Manitoba (Winnipeg, Brandon)
  • British Columbia (Richmond, Dawson Creek)
  • Quebec (Sherbrooke)
  • Maritimes (Cardigan, Glasgow)
Next, the cities inside each province that match those potentials were identified and selected for SAM analysis. British Columbia was an exception. Richmond was selected for energy yields of 650 kWh/kWp, 750 kWh/kWp and 850 kWh/kWp as there was no identified location close to the areas of energy yield potentials of 650 kWh/kWp and 850 kWh/kWp to use in British Colombia. Richmond has an average energy yield potential of 750 kWh/kWp, which is the average for the region.
Using these locations, SAM models (Table 1) were developed to determine annual energy yield for one kW of PV system for both the configurations. Finally, using the total installed capacity for an area and annual energy yield of the system, the total AV potential of the location was determined.

4. Results

Using GIS analysis, the available potential for a conventional solar PV was determined as shown in Figure 2.
The energy yield at sample locations within each province was then calculated which provided similar results (kWh/kWp) as from the GIS analysis. These results are shown in Table 2.
The results of the analyses are described below for individual provinces.

4.1. Ontario

Although Ontario is a large province, the vast majority of the farmland is located in the south as shown in Figure 2. There are three solar flux regions quantified in Table 3 with the largest being the 750 kWh/kWp region. The higest flux zones are located in the western part of the province and are a factor of 20 smaller in area than the other two flux-farmland zones. The potential solar energy yeild on only 1% of this land is still substantial; with vertical arrays offering over 17,000 GWh/year and more than 30,000 GWh/year if a single axis tracker is used. In 2019, Ontario generated 153.0 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity and only 8% is carbon emitting [105]. Thus to completely eliminate all carbon emissions from the Ontario grid, only 12 TWh would need to be produced. So, less than ½ a percent of farmland would need to be converted to single axis trackers to make the Ontario electric grid net zero emissions. This trivial amount of farmland moving to agrivoltaics is likely to increase production, but there are policy hurdles that need to be overcome [29] to enable farmers to enjoy the benefits detailed in Figure 1.
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Figure 3. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Ontario [97,98,99].
Figure 3. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Ontario [97,98,99].
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4.2. Alberta

The province of Alberta shares its borders with Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Most of the agricultural land in Alberta is located in the south adjacent to Saskatchewan as depicted in Figure 4. PV potential on this agricultural land falls under two high-solar flux bands, 950 kWh/kWp and 1050 kWh/kWp, making it one of the locations most conducive to PV deployment. Through agrivoltaic installation on only 1% of its agricultural land, electricity output from vertical PV systems would be greater than 48,000 GWh/year. The energy output could be greatly enhanced if single axis tracking technology is employed taking it in excess of 73,000 GWh/year. This is nearly the entire electricity production of Alberta, which generated approximately 76 TWh of electricity in 2019 [106]. 89% of Alberta’s electricity came from fossil fuels, yet single axis tracking agrivoltaics on 1% of the current agricultural land would eliminate the GHG emissions from combusting these fuels entirely. From a GHG emissions mitigation standpoint, agrivoltaics has an enormous potential in Alberta for helping eliminate Canada’s overall emissions.
Table 4. Potential of Agrivoltaics in Alberta for 1% of Agricultural Land.
Table 4. Potential of Agrivoltaics in Alberta for 1% of Agricultural Land.
Conventional PV Potential (kWh/kWp) Alberta
Vertical (GWh/year) Single Axis Tracking (GWh/year)
950 23,567 34,899
1050 24,669 38,165
Total 48,236 73,064

4.3. Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan, the province with the largest agricultural land, accounts for almost 2/5th of crop field farmland in Canada in 2016 [107]. Its agricultural land is concentrated in the south as seen in Figure 5. Saskatchewan receives high solar flux across its cropland with a solar yield potential of approximately 1050 kWh/kWp. Using only 1% of this area for agrivoltaics would provide 76,087 GWh/year of electricity from vertical PV racking design and more than 116,000 GWh/year from single axis tracking installations. In 2019, Saskatchewan produced 24.1 TWh of electricity with its majority (81%) coming from fossil fuels [108]. The analysis shows that by using only a tiny fraction (about 0.17-0.26%) of agricultural land for agrivoltaics, the province can completely offset fossil-fuel based electricity generation and contribute positively towards Canadian renewable energy goals.
Table 5. Potential of agrivoltaics in Saskatchewan for 1% of agricultural land.
Table 5. Potential of agrivoltaics in Saskatchewan for 1% of agricultural land.
Conventional PV Potential (kWh/kWp) Saskatchewan
Vertical (GWh/year) Single Axis Tracking (GWh/year)
950 1,123 1664
1050 74,964 115,011
Total 76,087 116,675

4.4. Manitoba

Farmland with the highest solar flux lies to the south of the region adjacent to Saskatchewan. The solar energy yield for Manitoba’s agricultural land falls under two solar flux regions, 950 kWh/kWp and 1050 kWh/kWp, which are somewhat evenly shared across the province. Numerical simulations indicate that by using only 1% of this farmland, Manitoba can annually generate approximately 19,000 GWh/year of electrical energy by adopting vertical racking designs and 29,835 GWh/year using single axis tracking systems. 2019 data shows that total electrical energy generated in the province was around 34 TWh [109]. Manitoba electricity generation is already 98% renewable with hydroelectric and wind. Thus, using 1% of farmland for agrivoltaics (single axis tracking PVs) has the potential to meet almost all electrical energy requirements of the province or to provide renewable electricity for export.
Table 6. Potential of agrivoltaics in Manitoba for 1% of agricultural land.
Table 6. Potential of agrivoltaics in Manitoba for 1% of agricultural land.
Conventional PV Potential (kWh/kWp) Manitoba
Vertical (GWh/year) Single Axis Tracking (GWh/year)
950 6905 10,566
1050 12,132 18,819
Total 19,037 29,385
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Figure 6. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically orient-ed arrays in the farmland regions across Manitoba [97,98,99].
Figure 6. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically orient-ed arrays in the farmland regions across Manitoba [97,98,99].
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4.5. British Columbia

British Columbia lies in the southwest of Canada. The total farmland in British Columbia is small and is concentrated in two regions near Vancouver and Dawson Creek with the rest distributed across various valleys. Each of these receives a different solar flux from 650 kWh/kWp to 950kWh/kWp. These values are some of the poorest solar resources in Canada. Despite this, using 1% of the agricultural land for agrivoltaics for vertical PV arrays and single axis tracking system arrays would supply 2,551 GWh/year and 4,007 GWh/year, respectively. The total energy generation in the provinces was approximately 64 TWh in 2019 [110], but 87% of its electricity is from hydroelectricity and thus is already renewable in nature [110]. Almost 5% of electricity generated in British Columbia in 2019 came from natural gas (4%) and petroleum (0.5%). Less than 1% (approximately 2/3%) of agricultural land requires single axis tracking agrivoltaics installation to eliminate fossil fuel-based electricity in the province.
Table 7. Potential of agrivoltaics in British Columbia for 1% of agricultural land.
Table 7. Potential of agrivoltaics in British Columbia for 1% of agricultural land.
Conventional PV Potential (kWh/kWp) British Columbia
Vertical (GWh/year) Single Axis Tracking (GWh/year)
750 957 1,671
950 1,594 2,336
Total 2,551 4,007
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Figure 7. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across British Columbia [97,98,99].
Figure 7. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across British Columbia [97,98,99].
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4.6. Quebec

The province of Quebec is the largest province of Canada in terms of land area [111]. Most of its agricultural land is situated in the south with solar PV potential around 850 kWh/kWp. The conversion of 1% of the province’s agricultural land to agrivoltaics using vertical PVs provides an annual electric generation potential of 9,456 GWh/year for the region. The potential is increased to 14,560 GWh/year if single axis trackers are used. Most of the electricity in Quebec is from hydro power. In 2019, Quebec generated 212.9 TWh of electricity and only 0.3% comes from fossil fuels (natural gas and petroleum) [112]. Only a tiny fraction (less than 0.1% regardless of type of agrivoltaics) of agricultural land would need agrivoltaics installations in Quebec to completely eliminate emissions from fossil fuel used for electricity generation.
Table 8. Potential of agrivoltaics in Quebec for 1% of agricultural land.
Table 8. Potential of agrivoltaics in Quebec for 1% of agricultural land.
Conventional PV Potential (kWh/kWp) British Columbia
Vertical (GWh/year) Single Axis Tracking (GWh/year)
850 9,456 14,560
Total 9,456 14,560
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Figure 8. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Quebec [97,98,99].
Figure 8. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Quebec [97,98,99].
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4.7. Maritimes

New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island form the Maritimes provinces of Canada [113]. The two bands of the solar flux with a PV potential of 750 kWh/kWp and 850 kWh/kWP are scattered across the region’s agricultural lands. From SAM analysis, 2,772 GWh/year of electricity generation is offered by the province if vertical PV systems are used for agrivoltaics. The power generation potential augments to 4,474 GWh/year if a single axis tracking system is used. The Maritimes are heavily fossil fuel dependent and have relatively small agricultural areas, so to eliminate all carbon emissions from the electric grid for the Maritimes, 4.1% of agricultural land is needed for vertical PV and 2.5% for single axis tracker agrivoltaics.
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Figure 9. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Maritimes [97,98,99].
Figure 9. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Maritimes [97,98,99].
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Table 9. Potential of agrivoltaics in Maritimes for 1% of agricultural land.
Table 9. Potential of agrivoltaics in Maritimes for 1% of agricultural land.
Conventional PV Potential (kWh/kWp) Maritimes
Vertical (GWh/year) Single Axis Tracking (GWh/year)
750 714 1,156
850 2,058 3,318
Total 2,772 4,474

5. Discussion

From SAM models and simulations, it is estimated that potential annual energy output by employing agrivoltaics to 1% of agricultural land is 175,267 GWh for vertical systems or 272,554 GWh for single axis tracking systems in Canada. Table 10 summarizes the electricity generation potential of agrivoltaics installation on 1% of agricultural land within the provinces of Canada.
Canada’s total electrical energy production in 2019 was 632,200 GWh [114]. Thus, about a 28% to 43 of Canada's electric needs can be catered from vertical bifacial or single axis trackers agrivoltaics systems, respectively. Considering Canada’s targets for renewable energy generation and reduced GHGs, agrivoltaics technology manifest immense potential. Table 11 summarizes the percentage of agricultural land on which agrivoltaics needs to be deployed to eliminate fossil fuel-based electricity generation in Canada.
The study provides an in-depth evaluation of agrivoltaics potential in each province of Canada. The results could be used to formalize future policies and regulations which will then help unlock the technology’s full potential.

5.1. Limitations

Although this investigation demonstrates capabilities of agrivoltaics technology in Canada, there are limitations to this study. Firstly, there is a need to experiment with on-ground agrivoltaics systems that provide experimental evidence as to both the electrical output and the performance of crops under the system. Thus, future work is required to translate simulations and models-based study into practical applications. Moreover, there are several agrivoltaics configurations that need to be studied (for instance, vertical bifacial, single and double axis tracking, fixed and variable tilt, stilt mounted systems or conventional systems etc.) with a variety of crops.
Currently, little research focuses on the quality of crops that will be harvested under agrivoltaics. Hence, detailed investigation is required to determine if agricultural produce via agrivoltaics improves or deteriorates the nutrient profile. Moreover, social acceptance of the technology is key to its diffusion on commercial scale. Hence, studies are required which focus on people’s perceptions (and misconceptions) about the technology and seek feedback from the main stakeholders which will promote its adoption on mass-scale. Such studies will serve as a foreground to come up with financial models which help farmers, financers, and policy makers to make informed decisions.

5.2. International Competition in Agrivoltaics

Agrivoltaics projects employed in Canada thus far are relatively small in scale and consist primarily of traditional solar PV systems, which are used for livestock grazing. These projects have been shown to be helpful for both sheep grazing (benefits include protection from heat [92] as well as provision of high-quality grazing land [93]) and PV systems (advantage include alleviated maintenance costs associated with weed removal etc.), and when combined, to the overall ecosystem/environment as well [94]. The merits of agrivoltaics technology go far beyond these as can be seen in Figure 1 and the technology can offer better land-use strategies. Canada needs more aggressive development and advancement in agrivoltaics to keep up with the rest of the world especially Europe, China, Japan and U.S. where the technology is rapidly expanding. In 2012, there was only 5 MW of agrivoltaics systems installed globally; this has expanded to a total global installed capacity reaching 14 GW in 2021 [115]. In China, the largest agrivoltaic system has an installed capacity of 700 MW, whereas Japan has 1,800 small agrivoltaic systems [115]. This shows the scale at which agrivoltaic technology has progressed and the flexibility it has with deployment. Moreover, approximately 2,800 MW of agrivoltaics systems have been installed in U.S. [116]. The U.S. Department of Energy recently approved USD 8 million to support agrivoltaics research and supplement its development [117]. Canada, being one of the largest exporters of agricultural products [95], has substantial revenue at stake and needs to consider what appropriate actions are needed to stay competitive with other countries that are both deploying and researching agrivoltaics aggressively.

5.3. Potential use of Agrivoltaic-generated Electricity: Computation, Transportation and Export

As the results in Table 11 clearly show, augmenting even tiny fractions of the agricultural land in Canada with agrivoltaics would eliminate all carbon emissions from Canada’s electricity generation. This is important as Canada’s per capita historic GHG emissions are the highest in the world [118] and the existence of the new agreement on “loss and damage fund” [119,120] can make further emissions a major liability, Canada should be aggressively seeking to reduce carbon emissions liabilities [121,122,123,124]. It is also clear that the agrivoltaic potential of all the provinces far exceeds what is needed to decarbonize the electric system (Table 11). There are several applications of low-cost sustainable electricity generation that would benefit from a large influx of agrivoltaics deployments in Canada: i) decarbonize transportation by moving to electric vehicles [125,126] and hydrogen fuel (e.g. a hub and spoke collection system developed by dairy producers can be mirrored by hub and spoke on-farm hydrogen production by agrivoltaics [127]; ii) decarbonizing heating using heat pumps that are already economic in Canada [5], iii) powering increased computing operations [78,128,129] and iv) exporting electricity to the fossil-fuel dependent U.S. [130].

6. Energy Policy Recommendations

To capitalize on the benefits of agrivoltaics (see Figure 1) in Canada, three policy areas can be addressed: i) research, ii) regulations and standards, and iii) incentives.

6.1. Support for Agrivoltaic Research in Canada

Provincial analysis of both Ontario [29] and Alberta [42] has shown great promise and substantial policy roadblocks for agrivoltaics. The wider potential for agrivoltaics shown in this study for all of Canada, can be further improved by investigating the potential to convert all current pasture land to conventional solar farms with sheep, rabbit, or other grazing animals. In addition, these results can be further refined with GIS studies investigating the connection availability of the feeders and stations in various parts of each province, and then carefully determining the optimum deployment strategy while minimizing grid upgrades. This will initially provide a baseline for agrivoltaic land in using assumptions around available distribution connection capacity.
Substantial research is also needed in Canada to optimize PV systems for a wide array of agrivoltaics options. So for all food crops currently farmed in Canada, the following PV system design aspects can be tested and optimized including: 1) PV array geometry, orientation, type of racking for PV arrays, spacing between rows of racks, and modules types; 2) the type of tilting (fixed tilt – both vertical and sloped), variable tilt, single axis tracking and dual axis tracking; 3) PV module material and type including monofacial or bifacial, thin film module, perovskite, organic, or silicon cell-based modules, 4) PV transparency (0-100%) as a function of light color, which can be adjusted by changing the cell packing densities of crystalline silicon based cells or the thickness of thin film PV and or light trapping/ anti-reflective coatings; and 5) energy bandgap and thus spectrum of light converted from single or multiple bandgap materials.
There are several ways to increase the efficiency of agrivoltaics production even further. Progress has already been made in partially-transparent and colored PV [131,132] and semitransparent PV modules used in greenhouses [133,134,135,136], and the technology can increase yields [51,137,138]. Spectral tuning of light with films and PV have been demonstrated to increase yields in a wide array of indoor spaces [139,140,141,142,143,144,145]. A large array of experiments needs to be conducted on agrivoltaics specialty modules on a range of conventional crops [88], aquaponics (aquavoltaics) for fish and water plants [146] and powering indoor vertical growing to increase food production further for the world’s growing population.
Education and public awareness are also needed to disseminate the results of this research. One approach to doing this is to use citizen science [147,148] to provide information to consumers, farmers and local communities considering deploying agrivoltaics. Furthermore, research should be made available to the public in an openly accessible format, which demonstrates the effectiveness and benefits of agrivoltaics. It is suggested that funding of such research projects be linked to open access requirements [149] as well as strategic open source requirements at the national scale [150], which will ensure that information is available to innovate as rapidly as possible and make informed decisions.

6.2. Agrivoltaic Regulations and Standards in Canada

Although most Canadians are unfamiliar with the concept of agrivoltaics, agrivoltaics-social science in the U.S. indicates that the PV industry, farmers, and the general public will enthusiastically support it [151,152,153]. To enable agrivoltaics in Canada it should be well defined to ensure that agriculture is benefited from PV deployment. A tiered system for categorization of agrivoltaic technology has been proposed the basis of land utilization, as given below in Table 12 [29,42]. The more valuable tiers could be provided with greater incentives and provide obstacles to conventional ‘dead’ solar farms. In addition, agrivoltaics should be reserved for food crops and all incentives should be restricted for growing tobacco and other drugs that have a detrimental impact on public health [154] instead of food.
A detailed policy and regulatory review at both the federal and provincial level is necessary to reduce barriers to agrivoltaics adoption. One first step would be to define a standard for a specific methodology and best practices for design, installation (important to preserve soil health), and testing/certification of agrivoltaic technology to ensure compliance of the minimum installation, operational, and maintenance requirements.

6.3. Financial Incentives

The federal and provincial governments can incentivize rapid adoption of agrivoltaics technology through several mechanisms. Such incentives can be tax breaks for farmers willing to install agrivoltaics, such as exemption from sales tax or have reduced property taxes. Agrivoltaics could have access to Class 43.1 and 43.2 for renewable energy, which allow for accelerated depreciation [158]. As up-front capital for installation agrivoltaics can be a challenge, governments can provide easy and low-or-no-interest loans. Also, governments could reimburse a certain portion of the initial capital investment to individuals installing solar farms on their agricultural land. Governments can also help accelerate agrivoltaics adoption with carbon credits, which can be traded and used to offset carbon taxes. Similarly, agrivoltaics could receive zoning benefits, feed in tariffs, or grants. Future work is needed to discern the most efficient approach. Canada can achieve sustainability and help achieve its climate and renewable energy related goals while tackling the ever-growing concerns of food and energy through adoption of agrivoltaics.

7. Conclusions

This study estimated the agrivoltaics potential in Canada using a combination of GIS analysis over agricultural areas of individual provinces and SAM simulations for bifacial PV modules for single axis tracking and vertical system configurations. Depending on the agrivoltaics technology employed, about a quarter to over one third of Canada’s total electrical energy needs can be met only by agrivoltaics using only 1% of agricultural land. These results show that agrivoltaics could be a major contributor to electricity generation and enable Canada to render the power generation sector GHG emission free. The fraction of agricultural land in each province that can be used to decarbonize the grid in the province is less than 1% for all provinces with the exception of Alberta (1.4%), British Columbia (1.1%) and the Maritimes that need (4.1%) using vertical agrivoltaics. If single axis tracking were used, all provinces could be carbon free with less than 1% of agricultural land dedicated to agrivoltaics with the exception of the Maritimes (2.5%). All provinces other than Alberta, British Columbia and Maritimes need less than 0.5% of their agricultural land. It is clear that the potential of agrivoltaic-based solar energy production in Canada far outstrips current electric demand. Apart from making farming and electricity generation net zero in Canada, electricity generated from agrivoltaics can be used to decarbonize several sectors. First agrivoltaics can provide electric vehicle charging and for hydrogen production to decarbonize transportation in Canada. Second, it can be used to power heat pumps to decarbonize building heating. Third, agrivoltiac-generated electricity can be used to expand machine learning and AI applications, as well as cloud computing data centers, cryptocurrency miners and servers in Canada to help accelerate economic opportunities. Finally, Canada can export green electricity to the U.S. to help Americans eliminate their dependence on fossil fuels. China and European countries are working aggressively to develop the technology and secure competitive edge by leveraging agrivoltaics to improve agricultural economics. For Canada to remain internationally competitive and advance agrivoltaics technology on the commercial scale, policies are needed to support agrivoltaic research, define agrivoltaic standards, and modernize regulations. Further, by providing financial incentives and access to capital agrivoltaics development in Canada can be accelerated to economically decarbonize the entire country.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, Joshua M. Pearce; Data curation, Abigail Bonnington and Joshua M. Pearce; Formal analysis, Uzair Jamil, Abigail Bonnington and Joshua M. Pearce; Funding acquisition, Joshua M. Pearce; Investigation, Uzair Jamil and Abigail Bonnington; Methodology, Uzair Jamil and Joshua M. Pearce; Resources, Uzair Jamil and Joshua M. Pearce; Software, Uzair Jamil and Abigail Bonnington; Supervision, Joshua M. Pearce; Validation, Uzair Jamil and Abigail Bonnington; Visualization, Uzair Jamil and Abigail Bonnington; Writing – original draft, Uzair Jamil and Joshua M. Pearce; Writing – review & editing, Uzair Jamil, Abigail Bonnington and Joshua M. Pearce.

Funding

This research was supported by the Thompson Endowment and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Data Availability Statement

Data is available upon request.

Acknowledgments

This article benefited from helpful comments from C. Mindorff.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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Figure 1. Services and benefits provided by agrivoltaic applications include: a) renewable electricity generation, b) decreased greenhouse gas emissions, c) reduced climate change, d) water conservation, e) increased crop yield, f) plant protection from excess solar energy, g) plant protection from excess wind, f) plant protection from hail, g) prevents soil erosion, h) reverses desertification, i) maintains agricultural employment, j) local food, k) improved health from pollution reduction, l) increased revenue for farmers, m) a hedge against inflation, n) energy for servers and cryptocurrency miners, o) integrated greenhouses, p) the potential to produce nitrogen fertilizer on farm, q) on farm production of renewable fuels like anhydrous ammonia or hydrogen, r) electricity for EV charging for on or off-farm.
Figure 1. Services and benefits provided by agrivoltaic applications include: a) renewable electricity generation, b) decreased greenhouse gas emissions, c) reduced climate change, d) water conservation, e) increased crop yield, f) plant protection from excess solar energy, g) plant protection from excess wind, f) plant protection from hail, g) prevents soil erosion, h) reverses desertification, i) maintains agricultural employment, j) local food, k) improved health from pollution reduction, l) increased revenue for farmers, m) a hedge against inflation, n) energy for servers and cryptocurrency miners, o) integrated greenhouses, p) the potential to produce nitrogen fertilizer on farm, q) on farm production of renewable fuels like anhydrous ammonia or hydrogen, r) electricity for EV charging for on or off-farm.
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Figure 2. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Canada [97,98,99].
Figure 2. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Canada [97,98,99].
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Figure 4. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Alberta [97,98,99].
Figure 4. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Alberta [97,98,99].
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Figure 5. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Saskatchewan [97,98,99].
Figure 5. Conventional photovoltaic potential (in kWh/kWp) of south-facing, vertically oriented arrays in the farmland regions across Saskatchewan [97,98,99].
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Table 1. SAM input parameters for detailed PV model.
Table 1. SAM input parameters for detailed PV model.
Parameters Vertical Single Axis
PV Module Heliene 72M-405 G1 Bifacial
Module Type Mono Crystalline Silicon - Bifacial
Bifaciality 0.7
Tracking & Orientation Fixed 1 Axis
Tilt Angle 90 (tilt – latitude in SAM) 0* (tilt – latitude in SAM)
Azimuth 180 degrees
DC Power Rating 1.2 kWdc
DC to AC Ratio 1.0
Soiling Losses 5%
DC Power Losses 4.44%
AC Power Losses 1%
PV Degradation Rate 0.5%
Lifetime 25 years
* Default setting in SAM for 1 axis tracking system are based on [104].
Table 2. Locations in individual provinces.
Table 2. Locations in individual provinces.
Conventional PV Potential (kWh/kWp) Ontario Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba British Columbia Quebec Maritimes
Locations
650 - - - - Richmond - -
750 London - - - Richmond - Cardigan
850 Chatham - - - Richmond Sherbrooke New Glasgow
950 Gameland Edmonton Northern Pine Winnipeg Dawson Creek - -
1050 - Drumheller Regina Brandon - - -
Table 3. Potential of Agrivoltaics in Ontario for 1% of Agricultural Land.
Table 3. Potential of Agrivoltaics in Ontario for 1% of Agricultural Land.
Conventional PV Potential (kWh/kWp) Ontario
Vertical (GWh/year) Single Axis Tracking (GWh/year)
750 8,566 15,178
850 8,075 14,460
950 487 751
Total 17,128 30,389
Table 10. Electricity potential of agrivoltaics installation on 1% of Canadian agricultural land.
Table 10. Electricity potential of agrivoltaics installation on 1% of Canadian agricultural land.
Province Vertical (GWh/year) Single Axis (GWh/year)
Ontario 17,128 30,389
Alberta 48,236 73,064
Saskatchewan 76,087 116,675
Manitoba 19,037 29,385
British Columbia 2,551 4,007
Quebec 9,456 14,560
Maritimes 2,772 4,474
Table 11. Percentage of agricultural land by Province required to eliminate emissions from fossil fuel-based electricity generation in Canada.
Table 11. Percentage of agricultural land by Province required to eliminate emissions from fossil fuel-based electricity generation in Canada.
Province Vertical (%) Single Axis (%)
Ontario 0.71 0.40
Alberta 1.40 0.92
Saskatchewan 0.26 0.17
Manitoba 0.0036 0.0023
British Columbia 1.12 0.72
Quebec 0.067 0.044
Maritimes 4.5 2.5
Table 12. Agrivoltaic systems tiers to favor greater land-use efficiency and GHG emissions reduction potential. Adapted from [29].
Table 12. Agrivoltaic systems tiers to favor greater land-use efficiency and GHG emissions reduction potential. Adapted from [29].
Tier. Allowed Land Use Type of Agrivoltaic Explanations
1. Prime agriculture Crop See Section 2
2. Pasture Grazing Sheep [64,155], and rabbits [156]
3. Marginal Apiculture
(beekeeping)		 Honey [157]
4. Non-restricted Insect Habitat Pollinators such as butterflies that provide secondary services
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