Impact of shading on paddy field: A case study in Bangladesh towards agrivoltaic

Abstract

Agrivoltaics is the dual use of land by combining agricultural crop production with a photovoltaic (PV) system. In this work, the impact of shading has been analyzed on a particular crop to understand the future prospects of the agrivoltaic system on that land. A set up is made on land situated in the Bogura district of Bangladesh. A total of 15 sample crops have been considered from both the shaded and unshaded regions to investigate the grain number, height of the crops, perimeter, and number of small branches. It is evident from the study that, unshaded sample crops have a higher number of grains, have a greater height, and have a larger perimeter than shaded region crops. Though there are some dissimilarities, such as the shaded region sample crop showing a higher grain number, the total grain number shows that unshaded region crops have a higher number of grains. All the data did not exceed the average 30% difference between shaded and unshaded data, which ensures the future implementation prospects of agrivoltaic in that field.