Evaluation of Yield and Yield Components of Rice in Vertical Agro-Photovoltaic System in South Korea

• Published in: Agriculture (Basel) Vol. 14; no. 6; p. 920
• Main Authors: Jo, Hyun, Song, Jong Tae, Cho, Hyeonjun, Lee, Sangyeab, Choi, Seungmin, Jung, Ho-Jun, Lee, Hyeong-No, Lee, Jeong-Dong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2024
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Agricultural production; Agrivoltaics; Alternative energy sources; Amylose; Analysis; Arrays; Carbon dioxide; Climate change; Crop production; Crop yield; Crop yields; Crops; Cultivation; Efficiency; Electricity; Emissions; Environmental factors; Food; Fossil fuels; Global climate; Grain cultivation; Humidity; Industrial plant emissions; Land area; Land use; Photosynthesis; Photovoltaics; Power plants; Renewable energy; Renewable resources; Rice; rice paddy field; rice yield; Solar energy; Solar energy industry; solar panel; Solar panels; Split-plot design; Variance analysis; vertical agro-photovoltaic system; South Korea
• ISSN: 2077-0472; 2077-0472
• DOI: 10.3390/agriculture14060920

Renewable energy from photovoltaic power plants has increased in amount globally as an alternative energy to combat global climate change by reducing fossil fuel burning and carbon dioxide (CO[sub.2]) emissions. The agro-photovoltaic (APV) approach can be a solution to produce solar energy and crop production at the same time by installing solar panels on the same farmland to increase land use efficiency. This study aimed to compare the yield and yield components of rice (Oryza sativa L.) between a vertical APV system and a control field across two years. The solar panels were installed around the rice field in four directions of rice cultivation. Based on the analysis of variance, the primary factor influencing measured yield and yield components was the year effect, whereas the direction effect did not show significance, except for amylose content and ripened grains. Especially for rice production, the rice yield in 2023 was 6.8 t/ha, which was significantly higher by 0.8 t/ha than in 2022. Compared with the control condition, however, there was no significant negative impact on the year-to-year rice yield of the vertical APV system across two years. As rice yield was mainly affected by year, rice yield trials will be required for multiple years to understand the genetic and environmental factors influencing rice production under the vertical APV system.