Agrivoltaic approach in improving soil resistivity in large scale solar farms for energy sustainability

Recently, approaches have been established to improve the grounding system performance, especially with the increasing numbers of large-scale solar (LSS) PV farms. Soil resistivity is one of the contributing factors to the inefficiency of power generation as it induces high impedance on electricity...

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Main Authors: Ya'acob, M. E., Lu, Li, Zulkifli, S. A., Roslan, N., Ahmad, W. F. H. Wan
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2023
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/106465/
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author Ya'acob, M. E.
Lu, Li
Zulkifli, S. A.
Roslan, N.
Ahmad, W. F. H. Wan
author_facet Ya'acob, M. E.
Lu, Li
Zulkifli, S. A.
Roslan, N.
Ahmad, W. F. H. Wan
author_sort Ya'acob, M. E.
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Recently, approaches have been established to improve the grounding system performance, especially with the increasing numbers of large-scale solar (LSS) PV farms. Soil resistivity is one of the contributing factors to the inefficiency of power generation as it induces high impedance on electricity flow from the source to highly sensitive PV equipment and devices such as inverters. Some critical issues on nutrient leaching derived from ammonium sulphate fertilizer direct to ground soil are the focal point of this work with the fact that soil resistivity value is inversely proportional to increasing soil salt content. Therefore, a low grounding system could be obtained with a high Electrical Conductivity (EC) and high soil moisture content. In this work, a conceptual setup for an agrivoltaic condition with 500 units of herbal crops has been cultivated directly underneath 1 PV string in Puchong Solar Farm, Selangor, Malaysia. The amount of salt or nutrient under this condition was measured leaching approximately 40 mL per polybag as means of ground treatment to improve soil resistivity value, thus indirectly reducing the risk of electrical damage. The agrivoltaic approach has shown that it can improve the performance of a grounding system in an LSS PV farm with a significant reduction of 4.45Ω earth resistance on average.
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institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
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spelling upm-1064652024-08-16T08:12:48Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/106465/ Agrivoltaic approach in improving soil resistivity in large scale solar farms for energy sustainability Ya'acob, M. E. Lu, Li Zulkifli, S. A. Roslan, N. Ahmad, W. F. H. Wan Recently, approaches have been established to improve the grounding system performance, especially with the increasing numbers of large-scale solar (LSS) PV farms. Soil resistivity is one of the contributing factors to the inefficiency of power generation as it induces high impedance on electricity flow from the source to highly sensitive PV equipment and devices such as inverters. Some critical issues on nutrient leaching derived from ammonium sulphate fertilizer direct to ground soil are the focal point of this work with the fact that soil resistivity value is inversely proportional to increasing soil salt content. Therefore, a low grounding system could be obtained with a high Electrical Conductivity (EC) and high soil moisture content. In this work, a conceptual setup for an agrivoltaic condition with 500 units of herbal crops has been cultivated directly underneath 1 PV string in Puchong Solar Farm, Selangor, Malaysia. The amount of salt or nutrient under this condition was measured leaching approximately 40 mL per polybag as means of ground treatment to improve soil resistivity value, thus indirectly reducing the risk of electrical damage. The agrivoltaic approach has shown that it can improve the performance of a grounding system in an LSS PV farm with a significant reduction of 4.45Ω earth resistance on average. Elsevier 2023 Article PeerReviewed Ya'acob, M. E. and Lu, Li and Zulkifli, S. A. and Roslan, N. and Ahmad, W. F. H. Wan (2023) Agrivoltaic approach in improving soil resistivity in large scale solar farms for energy sustainability. Applied Energy, 352. pp. 1-10. ISSN 0306-2619; ESSN: 1872-9118 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923013077 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121943
spellingShingle Ya'acob, M. E.
Lu, Li
Zulkifli, S. A.
Roslan, N.
Ahmad, W. F. H. Wan
Agrivoltaic approach in improving soil resistivity in large scale solar farms for energy sustainability
title Agrivoltaic approach in improving soil resistivity in large scale solar farms for energy sustainability
title_full Agrivoltaic approach in improving soil resistivity in large scale solar farms for energy sustainability
title_fullStr Agrivoltaic approach in improving soil resistivity in large scale solar farms for energy sustainability
title_full_unstemmed Agrivoltaic approach in improving soil resistivity in large scale solar farms for energy sustainability
title_short Agrivoltaic approach in improving soil resistivity in large scale solar farms for energy sustainability
title_sort agrivoltaic approach in improving soil resistivity in large scale solar farms for energy sustainability
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/106465/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/106465/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/106465/