Agrivoltaic Systems Enhance Farmers’ Profits through Broccoli Visual Quality and Electricity Production without Dramatic Changes in Yield, Antioxidant Capacity, and Glucosinolates

Abstract

The increase in world population by an average rate of 2% per year causes critical issues on energy and foods. By 2050, food demand will increase to 35~56% more than in 2010 due to the growing population. Agrivoltaic systems allow us to reach sustainable food and electricity-production goals with high land-use efficiency. In this study, the yield, antioxidant capacity, and secondary metabolite of broccoli and electricity production were analyzed under an agrivoltaic system over 3 cultivation periods. Based on energy production, an economic analysis of agrivoltaic was carried out. In addition, our study also reported that agrivoltaic with additional shading treatment produced greener broccoli with a higher level of consumer preference than open-field grown ones. The yield, antioxidant capacity, some glucosinolates and hydrolysis products of broccoli grown under an agrivoltaic system were not significantly different from those of broccoli grown in the open-field.

The effect of additional shading utilizing agriphotovoltaic structures on the visual qualities and metabolites of broccoli

“…Too much shading might evoke significant decreases in the yields of broccoli. Our previous work suggested that the average weight of broccoli grown using an APV system is decreased; however, it does not differ significantly compared with plants grown on OF (Chae et al, 2022). The yields of several types of crops according to the degree of shading or light reduction have already been reviewed in previous reports (Weselek et al, 2019;Touil et al, 2021;Zainol Abidin et al, 2021).…”

“…Lowercase letters indicate significant differences among treatments within the same cultivar and year by HSD Tukey's test (p < 0.05). The CIELAB values of fall of 2021 broccoli were published on our previous study (Chae et al, 2022).…”

“…Despite the risk of decreased yield, APV systems are advantageous for the following reasons. Most importantly, APV systems can increase farmers' profits, because they produce electricity (Chae et al, 2022). Plants with low light saturation points can thrive under low light conditions, because they cannot utilize light beyond the saturation point for photosynthesis (Tazawa, 1999).…”

Fruit Crop Species with Agrivoltaic Systems: A Critical Review

“…and arable crops (i.e., rice, wheat, maize, potato, etc. ), with varying degrees of responsiveness to shade [25][26][27][28][29]. The suitability of AV configurations has also been tested on woody species (i.e., olive, pear) by simulations and modeling approaches [30][31][32].…”

Agrivoltaic: Challenge and Progress

“…The third paper, authored by Chae S et al [22], presents a study analyzing the yield, antioxidant capacity, and secondary metabolites of broccoli in three cultivation periods. This study identified the potential benefits of APV in broccoli cultivation.…”