Vernier et al. (2026) Designing agrivoltaic systems for plant protection

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Identification

• Journal: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-07-21
• Authors: J.‐P. Vernier, Baptiste Amiot, Sylvain Edouard, Éric Dupont, Vincent Trotin, Didier Combes, Patrick Massin
• DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111361

Research Groups

• Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Bologna
• Institute for Computational Science, ETH Zurich
• National Research Council (CNR), Italy

Short Summary

This study investigates the impact of agrivoltaic system design on plant temperature during weather-risk events using a novel numerical approach. The results highlight the importance of tailoring designs to specific stresses to maximize plant protection and agricultural yield.

Objective

• Investigate how geometrical design influences plant temperature in agrivoltaic systems

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Local scale, focusing on pilot-scale agrivoltaic system
• Temporal Scale: Diurnal cycles (6 days) and weather-risk events (white frost, heat waves, windy conditions)

Methodology and Data

• Models used:
  • Soil-plant-atmosphere continuum model
  • Computational fluid dynamics solver
• Data sources:
  • Numerical reproduction of pilot-scale agrivoltaic system
  • Measured plant temperatures (6 diurnal cycles)
  • Simulated weather-risk events

Main Results

• Spatially averaged plant temperature in simulated agrivoltaic zones differs by more than 5 °C compared to control zone
• Elevated design protects against white frost and heat waves (up to 3 °C and 4 °C, respectively)
• Vertical design has strongest impact under windy conditions (4 °C)

Contributions

• Presents a novel numerical approach for evaluating agrivoltaic system performance
• Highlights the importance of tailoring designs to specific stresses for maximum plant protection

Funding

• EU Horizon 2020 project: "Agrivoltaics for Sustainable Agriculture" (Grant Agreement No. 101006729)
• Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR): "FIRB-Futuro in Ricerca" (Project Code RBFR12SHX3)

Citation

@article{Vernier2026Designing,
  author = {Vernier, J.‐P. and Amiot, Baptiste and Edouard, Sylvain and Dupont, Éric and Trotin, Vincent and Combes, Didier and Massin, Patrick},
  title = {Designing agrivoltaic systems for plant protection},
  journal = {Agricultural and Forest Meteorology},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111361},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111361}
}