As the cost of photovoltaic power generation continues to decline, its application scenarios have been greatly expanded. Beyond the recent focus on photovoltaic hydrogen production, photovoltaics has long been integrated with other production and business methods, with agricultural-photovoltaic hybridization being a typical example.
Photovoltaic integration utilizes the pollution-free and zero-emission characteristics of solar photovoltaic power generation and organically combines it with high-tech greenhouses (including agricultural planting greenhouses and breeding greenhouses). Photovoltaic modules are laid on part or all of the sunny side of the greenhouse. The electricity generated can meet the needs of greenhouse planting, and the surplus electricity can be fed into the grid, achieving the goal of not interfering with power generation and production.
Because the principle is relatively simple, many people think that photovoltaic power generation only meets the electricity needs of agricultural production, but in fact, its importance is far greater than that.
On the one hand, high-tech greenhouses are completely different from traditional agriculture, which involves working from sunrise to sunset. They not only require sunlight and fertilizer, but also a lot of electricity to regulate the temperature inside the greenhouse and provide more light. The low cost advantage of photovoltaic power generation will be greatly demonstrated.
On the other hand, some of my country's more remote areas have relatively underdeveloped economies, relying solely on agriculture for income. Providing electricity to these areas via long-distance power transmission would be extremely costly, but a combination of agriculture and solar power could not only save on transmission infrastructure costs but also allow surplus electricity to be used for household electricity consumption—a win-win solution.
As a typical application of photovoltaics, agricultural-photovoltaic integration has helped agricultural production in many parts of my country to develop further, while also reducing agricultural production costs, increasing farmers' income, and even helping to solve some poverty alleviation problems. It will be more widely adopted in the future.
