Department Seminar of inga krasilnikov Experimental Investigation of Solar Beam Splitting Agrivoltaic Collector and its Impact on Wax Flower Cultivation
School of Mechanical Engineering Seminar
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 14:00
Wolfson Building of Mechanical Engineering, Room 206
Experimental Investigation of Solar Beam Splitting Agrivoltaic Collector and its Impact on Wax Flower Cultivation
Inga Krasilnikov
M.Sc. student of Prof. Abraham Kribusa and Dr. Helena Vitoshkinb
aSchool of Mechanical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel
bInstitute of Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Organization, the Volcani Center, P.O.B. 15159, Rishon LeZion, 7505101, Israel
Installing photovoltaic (PV) collectors over agricultural fields (Agrivoltaics) is a promising solution to the shortage of available land area for solar energy generation. This is an emerging area of research with many experimental projects being installed in greenhouses and open fields, over different crops, and using different PV technologies. The challenge is that shading by the collectors blocks sunlight required by the agricultural crop for photosynthesis. This conflict limits the density of collectors (land coverage ratio) and reduces the feasibility of the Agrivoltaics solution for shade sensitive crops. The proposed solution is a spectral splitting collector that transmits photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) to crop, and redirects the rest of the solar spectrum (infrared and near-infrared) to PV panel. The collector enables significant reduction in crop loss while allowing for high density of collectors. The study includes an experimental characterization of the optical and electric performance of the spectrum-splitting collector, using a commercial bifacial solar PV panel, commercially available hot mirrors and a single-axis tracking mechanism for daily (East-West) tracking. Results include the thermal and electrical performance of the PV panel, and a characterization of the filtered radiation incident on the ground below the collector. The second part of this study is understanding the effect of spectral splitting on a specific crop grown in Israel, the Michal species Wax flower, by realizing the lighting conditions in a full scale Agrivoltaics field with spectral splitting and evaluating their growth with comparison to similar plants exposed to full solar spectrum.
