Photovoltaics, Agriculture, and Ecology: From Agrivoltaics to Ecovoltaics

One of the challenges facing modern society is successfully balancing growing energy demand, demographic and food pressures, and ecological and environmental imperatives. This book provides an update on a rapidly evolving field: modern photovoltaic systems capable of addressing the needs of both the energy transition and the ecological transition. Although photovoltaic solar energy is a well-established technical solution for energy production, its development can compete with agricultural land or natural habitats. New solutions are emerging: the installation of photovoltaic parks on industrial brownfields; agrivoltaics, which combine agricultural activity and energy production on the same land; and ecovoltaics, which make it possible to utilize the unused space beneath solar panels by developing ecological solutions capable of providing ecosystem services. These innovations are part of the response to the need to preserve terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, halt the decline in animal and plant biodiversity, and contribute to the development of a new model of sustainable development and a green economy.

Authors: Claude Grison, Lucie Cases, Mailys Le Moigne, Martine Hossaert-McKey

ISTE Publications
July 2021

Link to the book