Dear community,

I am interested in doing some simulation modelling exercises based on our newly established agrivoltaic systems facility. In this agrivoltaic setup, located at AU Viborg, Denmark, we cultivate winter wheat, grass-clover and blue lupin in a standard rotation.

We are still brainstorming on how we should go about it. However, the idea is to use simulation modelling to circumvent some of the challenges we have in our agrivoltaic system setup (e.g. few treatment replicates, lack of long-term data, etc.). I have some experience with the APSIM framework. I see some people have already used it to model crops in agrivoltaic systems [(1) biomass growth in different agrivoltaic systems in Australia: Al Mamun et al. (2023) "Biomass production of a sub-tropical grass under different photovoltaic installations using different grazing strategies" (2) rice yield and quality in three different agrivoltaic systems (fixed tilted, horizontal and vertical) at different locations: Ahmed et al. (2022) "Agrivoltaics analysis in a techno-economic framework: Understanding why agrivoltaics on rice will always be profitable"].

Several adaptive modules seem to already exist in the 'next generation' APSIM, for instance, used in agroforestry modelling and other complex integrated crop-soil-atmosphere systems.

My primary interest is in modelling spatiotemporal dynamics in microclimate – with a focus on soil moisture, light intensity and quality (i.e. 'shade' and PAR). The aim is to provide a better process-based understanding of some of the factors playing a role in (seasonal and long-term) crop yield and quality in agrivoltaic systems.

Ideally, we would like to use the simulation modelling exercise parallel to the empirical field experiment data, so that we can gather data for model calibration and validation as the project goes along.

Any thoughts on this approach is highly welcomed. Any experience in using APSIM for agrivoltaic systems? Or suggestions as to how I could approach it?

Any useful tips are welcome!

Looking forward to this discussion.

#Agrivoltaics #AgriPV #Agriphotovoltaics

Kind regards,

Magnus Kamau Katana Lindhardt