Guest column: Thin-film solar panels can unlock agrivoltaics

Solar power has become ubiquitous across the globe. It’s no longer a quirky alternative source of energy you’d only come across in your life a handful of times a year; it’s everywhere now. But while solar power has been growing in prominence, it’s also been evolving in function, design, and efficiency.

Recent years have seen the rise in renown of thin-film solar cells. Thin-film solar PV consists of lightweight, flexible cells that can be applied to surfaces of irregular shapes and various sizes, thanks to their pliable design, and have minimal impact to the areas they’re affixed to, due to their light weight. This innovation on traditional, rigid solar panels, which you may be most accustomed to seeing on the roofs of buildings, allows solar power to be generated in countless situations and applications previously thought impossible because of the rigid design and formidable weight of traditional panels.

One of the key applications thin-film solar PV is poised to improve upon is agrivoltaics, the combination of solar PV and farming.

Agrivoltaics is a solar application that is rising in prominence. As climate change causes hotter and hotter temperatures with each passing year, farmers are experiencing difficulties keeping their crops healthy in the face of brutally hot sunshine beating down on them each day. This is where agrivoltaics come into play.

Agrivoltaics turn the sunshine problem into a solution. The technology involves installing elevated, thin-film solar panels over a series of crops, which makes productive use of the sun’s rays while also providing essential, protective shade to the crops below. Suddenly, a farmer implementing an agrivoltaic solution has increased their intake of usable energy while simultaneously improving the health of their crop, and increasing yield.

This is a solution to farmers’ crop overheating problems, but it can become even more efficient and fruitful when combined with thin-film PV.

Agrivoltaic challenges

Traditional, rigid solar panels can certainly work in an agrivoltaic application, but they might come with some cumbersome, built-in difficulties, due to the nature and design of the technology. As mentioned earlier, these solar panels can be quite heavy, meaning they would require stronger support structures to adequately elevate the panels high enough above the desired crops to provide them with the desired amount of protective shade.

To make matters even more complicated, traditional panels are often so large that they would produce more shade than necessary for most crops, shifting the problem from the farmland receiving too much sunlight to not enough of it. Striking the proper balance between sunlight and shade is tricky but crucial to the success of agrivoltaic implementation. Unfortunately, the rigid design of traditional panels can limit the ability of agrivoltaic projects to properly strike their delicate, necessary balance.

There is also the tricky problem of positioning. Most current agrivoltaic installations using traditional panels consist of a row of panels directly next to a row of crops, which takes some of the available land out of production, which hampers the overall efficiency benefits of implementing solar solutions on farmland.

And finally, traditional panels require underground electrical conduits, which disables flood irrigation, and thus limits the potential crop diversification farmers can work with. If, in the end, the solar solution prevents a farmer from growing their specifically desired crops, then they may have to pass on agrivoltaic implementation altogether, regardless of their interest or the potential it holds for them.

The thin-film solution

The flexibility, lightweight design and adaptability of thin-film solar cells all help to alleviate the pressing concerns around agrivoltaic implementation.

When implemented in a bespoke fashion for certain crops and farmland the solar system is tasked with protecting, thin-film agrivoltaics solve the challenges posed to their rigid counterparts. These arrays consist of a series of solar crossbars that are completely wrapped in solar cells, elevated high above the safeguarded crops, allowing for the entire area of farmland to be used for crop growth; to be exposed to a healthy balance of both partial sun and shade during daylight hours, allowing for ideal crop growth and health conditions; and the solar system to be implemented at a high elevation, thanks to thin-film’s lightweight design, allowing the crops to be serviced and harvested by any machinery that is commonly used in traditional farming situations, since there is plenty of space between the solar and the plants.

Thin-film agrivoltaics can also generate greater energy and water savings and a healthier crop yield.

Additionally, a crucial feature of thin-film that will grow in importance as climate change worsens is the ability for its cells to continue functioning after being damaged, struck or impaled. Intensifying climate change conditions is causing more frequent dangerous weather conditions capable of damaging solar systems in their path.

When a traditional solar panel is struck, its glass coating can shatter, requiring costly repairs for potential malfunctioning. In thin-film, only the damaged area will stop functioning.

Looking ahead to thin-film’s bright future

As the agricultural industry continues to embrace the benefits of agrivoltaics as a genuine path to increased revenues per acre, reduced on-site energy costs and improved crop yields, thin-film solar should emerge as a resource to bring it all to fruition.

The battle against climate change is going to take a concerted, customized effort from all facets of renewable energy, including a strategic marriage between thin-film solar solutions and their rigid, traditional counterparts. While thin-film solar is uniquely equipped to maximize the efficiency and performance of agrivoltaic systems, there are still plenty of applications that are better suited for traditional solar panel implementations.

Soon, more and more farmers throughout the nation will start seeing both the profitable energy-saving advantages of thin-film agrivoltaics and their crop health benefits.

Paul Warley joined Ascent Solar Technologies in 2022, taking on the role of CEO in 2023. Prior to his time at Ascent, he was president of Warley & Company LLC, a strategic advisory firm, providing executive management services, capital advisory and M&A to middle-market companies in the construction, technology, clean energy, green-building sectors and more. Prior to Warley & Company, Paul was a managing director and chief compliance officer with Deloitte Corporate Finance, serving clients in the alternative energy, building efficiency and other industries. He also spent several years doing consulting work with the US Green Building Council.