A Cost–Benefit Analysis for Utility-Scale Agrivoltaic Implementation in Italy
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. Price–Performance Ratio
3.2. The Extra Cost ec and the Levelized Cost of Energy
3.3. Performance Benefit
3.4. Net Present Value
4. Results
5. Discussion
- -
- Due to the values of the agricultural revenues reported in Table 2, in most parts of the Italian territory, ppr can be lower than one only for β values in the range 1–2, that is for APV systems that are not too different from the corresponding GMPV plants. It is worth noting that, in this respect, at present, β values higher than three are reported in the literature.
- -
- For the lower-revenue cropland activities, there is no practical reason, from an economic point of view, to implement a utility-scale agrivoltaic plant: APV infrastructural costs are, at least at present, too high to justify the preservation of the limited cropland activity revenue in any part of the Italian territory. In this case, ppr can only decrease to values below one if there is a modification in the agricultural activity turning to higher VAP productions and/or if the extra cost ec is decreased by means of the adoption of some kind of external supporting financial scheme to electric energy production, such as a Feed in Tariff or a dedicated prize. Paradoxically, this is also the frame where, as discussed in further detail below, the implementation of utility-scale APV could be more interesting for social and political reasons since it could, in principle, help counter the phenomena of land abandonment and exodus from rural areas;
- -
- For a high-revenue cropland activity, such as potato cultivation, the high APV infrastructural costs are at least partially compensated by high VAP values leading, in some Italian regions, to ppr values less than one, even without the adoption of any financial supporting scheme. However, in this case, the economically feasible APV-specific design is dependent on the location of the agricultural activity since the cropland revenue is strongly site dependent. Of course, high revenues croplands are at much less risk of abandonment or exodus, and therefore, the adoption of financial schemes supporting electric energy production should be very carefully considered.
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
List of Abbreviations Used
Abbreviation | Definition |
APV | Agrivoltaic System. |
CAPEX | Capital Expenditure, in EUR. |
CIS | Copper Indium Selenide solar cell. |
d | PV module efficiency degradation, %/yr. |
Ec | Extra cost, in EUR/ha∗yr. |
G | Photovoltaic power plant capacity, in Watts. |
GMPV | Ground-Mounted Photovoltaic System. |
GW | Gigawatt. |
GWh | Gigawatt∗hour. |
ha | Hectare. |
i | Inflation, in %. |
LCOE | Levelised Cost of Energy in EUR/kWh. |
N | PV plant operating lifetime, in years. |
NPV | Net Present Value, in EUR. |
NRRP | National Recovery and Resilience Plan. |
OPEX | Operational Expenditure, in EUR. |
pb | Performance benefit, in EUR/ha∗yr. |
ppr | Price–performance ratio. |
PV | Photovoltaic. |
VAP | Value of Agricultural Production, in EUR/ha. |
WDC | Watt in continuous current regime. |
WACC | Weighted Average Cost of Capital, in %. |
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Capex/Type of Cost | EUR/ha Italian Operators | EUR/ha Ref. [26] | EUR/ha Ref. [13] |
---|---|---|---|
Mounting structures and hardware | 120,000 | 38,000 | 92,000 |
Site preparation and installation | 88,000 | 101,000 | 90,000 |
Fencing | 12,000 | 7000 | 6000 |
Total | 220,000 | 146,000 | 188,000 |
Region | Durum Wheat (EUR/ha) | Common Wheat (EUR/ha) | Corn (EUR/ha) | Sunflower (EUR/ha) | Soybean (EUR/ha) | Potato (EUR/ha) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Piemonte | 1531.16 | 963.96 | 2300.08 | 671.12 | 980.21 | 14,427.52 |
Valle D’Aosta | 4453.85 | |||||
Lombardia | 1723.14 | 1089.57 | 2362.22 | 828.56 | 1198.66 | 13,214.29 |
Liguria | 490.68 | 904.76 | 8494.41 | |||
Trentino Alto Adige | 757.28 | 906.25 | 13,865.51 | |||
Veneto | 2118.81 | 1207.84 | 2129.48 | 762.87 | 1099.18 | 25,068.38 |
Friuli Venezia Giulia | 5022.47 | 765.95 | 2276.58 | 811.82 | 1011.17 | 17,920.63 |
Emilia Romagna | 2118.25 | 1196.76 | 1902.97 | 678.79 | 1352.20 | 21,004.38 |
Toscana | 1362.31 | 715.03 | 1574.61 | 527.71 | 679.86 | 9861.41 |
Umbria | 1622.47 | 904.38 | 1544.86 | 417.36 | 1500.00 | 6375.00 |
Marche | 1576.10 | 907.36 | 1482.97 | 498.68 | 998.05 | 9306.57 |
Lazio | 915.65 | 740.85 | 1876.14 | 433.86 | 625.00 | 14,826.93 |
Abruzzo | 1405.05 | 746.72 | 1591.84 | 464.04 | 1022.73 | 18,206.03 |
Molise | 1345.43 | 725.29 | 841.38 | 404.76 | 6576.19 | |
Campania | 1253.29 | 703.00 | 1408.02 | 544.91 | 28,188.95 | |
Puglia | 976.99 | 506.33 | 1136.90 | 430.61 | 31,650.94 | |
Basilicata | 1080.37 | 509.93 | 883.07 | 469.39 | 9285.71 | |
Calabria | 975.95 | 565.61 | 836.10 | 500.00 | 750.00 | 14,755.99 |
Sicilia | 988.57 | 512.82 | 1240.00 | 53,961.69 | ||
Sardegna | 917.52 | 399.25 | 1761.30 | 62,837.94 |
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Di Francia, G.; Cupo, P. A Cost–Benefit Analysis for Utility-Scale Agrivoltaic Implementation in Italy. Energies 2023, 16, 2991. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16072991
Di Francia G, Cupo P. A Cost–Benefit Analysis for Utility-Scale Agrivoltaic Implementation in Italy. Energies. 2023; 16(7):2991. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16072991
Chicago/Turabian StyleDi Francia, Girolamo, and Paolo Cupo. 2023. "A Cost–Benefit Analysis for Utility-Scale Agrivoltaic Implementation in Italy" Energies 16, no. 7: 2991. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16072991
APA StyleDi Francia, G., & Cupo, P. (2023). A Cost–Benefit Analysis for Utility-Scale Agrivoltaic Implementation in Italy. Energies, 16(7), 2991. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16072991