three different PV technologies to power a greenhouse hosting 400 cucumber seedlings
PV module cover on the greenhouse’s roof has a “negligible” impact on crop yield
‘compares the impact of opaque silicon PV versus semi-transparent organic photovoltaic technologies installed at canopy height within a Mediterranean polytunnel greenhouse on the growth of cucumber plants’
they used three different semi-transparent PV technologies in their work — bifacial glass-encapsulated PERC panels, bifacial plastic-encapsulated PERC modules, and semi-transparent organic photovoltaics (OPVs)
plants under the OPV and plastic modules grew bigger, which may depend on a better adaptation to capture more light in shaded conditions
“The glass-encapsulated silicon PV modules delivered enhanced crop yields, and highest efficiency,”
However, the OPV modules, with lower efficiency yielded fruits with a higher average weight, suggesting their light transmittance might be more attuned to plant efficient growth.
While the current findings lean in favor of the glass-encapsulated modules, the potential of advanced OPV technologies, especially those with spectral transmittance fine-tuned for plant growth, remains an exciting prospect for greenhouse integration, especially as OPV efficiencies increase
plants being arranged in four pairs of rows with 40 cm in-row spacings. Watering was performed for 30 min every day to give about 30 m3 of water per hectare
