The Environmental Mitigation Potential of Photovoltaic-Powered Irrigation in the Production of South African Maize

Wettstein, Sarah; Muir, Karen; Scharfy, Deborah; Stucki, Matthias

doi:10.3390/su9101772

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The annual performance of the PV hybrid system is very dependent on the corresponding water availability [47], which typically varies between two extremes.…”

Section: Operation Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Test of Solutions to Enlarge the Power of PV Irrigation and Application to a 140 kW PV-Diesel Representative Case

et al. 2018

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The current state of the art of photovoltaic (PV) irrigation systems is limited to PV peak powers below 40 kWp, which does not cover the irrigation needs of farmers, co-operatives, irrigator communities, and agro-industries. This limitation of power is due to two main technical barriers: The quick intermittence of PV power due to the passing of clouds, and the maladjustment between PV production and water needs. This paper presents new solutions that have been developed to overcome these barriers and their application to the design and performance of a 140 kWp hybrid PV-diesel system for the drip irrigation of 195 ha of olive trees in Alter do Chão, Portugal. The performance of the solutions was analysed during two years of real operation. As the performance of the PV system is not only affected by intrinsic-to-design characteristics, but also by circumstances external to the system, new performance indices were developed. As an example, the percentage of use of PV electricity, PVSH, was 78% and 82% in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and the performance ratio of the PV part, PRPV, was 0.79 and 0.80. The economic feasibility was also analysed based on experimental data, resulting in savings in the levelized cost of electricity of 61%.

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“…The annual performance of the PV hybrid system is very dependent on the corresponding water availability [47], which typically varies between two extremes.…”

Section: Operation Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Test of Solutions to Enlarge the Power of PV Irrigation and Application to a 140 kW PV-Diesel Representative Case

et al. 2018

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“…Due to technological advances, the economic uncertainty of various PV agricultural technologies has been greatly reduced, and many studies have proved that these technologies are economically feasible [14,16,19]. Moreover, its social [18] and environmental effects [20][21][22] have also been confirmed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on Coupling Coordination Development for Photovoltaic Agriculture System in China

2019

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To explore the law of coupling coordination development of China’s photovoltaic (PV) agriculture system, this study measured the comprehensive development level of the agriculture and PV industries from 2007 to 2016 using China’s agricultural and photovoltaic industry statistics. Once this was achieved, the coupling coordination degree of the PV agricultural system was measured and a development mode of this system was determined. Finally, we explored the development trend of the coupled and coordinated evolution of the system. The main research results show that: (1) Although the development level of the agriculture and PV industries are both in an upward trend, the rising rate of development by the PV industry far exceeds the agriculture industry. (2) As agricultural and PV industries expand, they both show stock resource-led characteristics, but the incremental resources of the PV industry are gradually taking the lead. (3) The coupling coordination degree of the agriculture and PV industries fluctuates as it rises, but the coupling is low. It has not yet evolved to a higher level of coupling, and the speed of upgrading and evolution is slow. (4) In the next 10 years, the evolution speed of the two industries will be significantly improved, and the coupling between them will enter the coordination stage. PV agriculture will further develop in a sustainable direction.

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“…LCA studies have already been done on PV pumping systems in order to estimate the mitigation potential of replacing grid-powered irrigation in South African maize production [35], to assess environmental benefits of water pumping and desalination process powered by PV and Wind systems [36] and to evaluate the carbon emission performance of a 3.4 kWp PV water pumping system in China [37]. Although, these systems are restricted into a modeled PV pumping scenario or systems of small power size.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embodied Energy and Environmental Impact of Large-Power Stand-Alone Photovoltaic Irrigation Systems

et al. 2018

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A life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used to evaluate the cumulative energy demand and the related environmental impact of three large-power stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) irrigation systems ranging from 40 kWp to 360 kWp. The novelty of this analysis is the large power of these systems as the literature up to now is restricted to modeled PV pumping systems scenarios or small power plants, where the size can be a critical factor for energy and environmental issues. The analysis shows that the yearly embodied energy per unit of PV power ranged from 1306 MJ/kWp to 1199 MJ/kWp depending of the PV generator size. Similarly, the related yearly carbon dioxide impacts ranged from 72.6 to 79.8 kg CO2e/kWp. The production of PV modules accounted for the main portion (about 80%) of the primary energy embodied into the PV irrigation system (PVIS). The outcomes of the study also show an inverse trend of the energy and carbon payback times respect to the PV power size: In fact, energy payback time increased from 1.94, to 5.25 years and carbon payback time ranged from 4.62 to 9.38 years. Also the energy return on investment depends on the PV generator dimension, ranging from 12.9 to 4.8. The environmental impact of the stand-alone PV systems was also expressed in reference to the potential amount of electricity generated during the whole PV life. As expected, the largest PVIS performs the best result, obtaining an emission rate of 45.9 g CO2e per kWh, while the smallest one achieves 124.1 g CO2e per kWh. Finally, the energy and environmental indicators obtained in this study are strongly related to the irrigation needs, which in turn are influenced by other factors as the type of cultivated crops, the weather conditions and the water availability.

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The Environmental Mitigation Potential of Photovoltaic-Powered Irrigation in the Production of South African Maize

Cited by 23 publications

References 41 publications

Development and Test of Solutions to Enlarge the Power of PV Irrigation and Application to a 140 kW PV-Diesel Representative Case

Development and Test of Solutions to Enlarge the Power of PV Irrigation and Application to a 140 kW PV-Diesel Representative Case

Research on Coupling Coordination Development for Photovoltaic Agriculture System in China

Embodied Energy and Environmental Impact of Large-Power Stand-Alone Photovoltaic Irrigation Systems

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