A Saudi Arabian startup has developed a modular photo voltaic panel for agrivoltaic functions. It’s particularly designed for areas with excessive ranges of photo voltaic radiation and protects crops and crops from extreme daylight.
Mirai Photo voltaic, a derivative of King Abdullah College of Science and Know-how (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, has developed foldable, versatile and modular photo voltaic panels for agrivoltaic functions.
The semitransparent Mirai Display module – or “PV shade display screen,” as the corporate calls it – accommodates monocrystalline silicon photo voltaic cells. It’s appropriate for deployment in greenhouses to generate vitality and defend crops from extreme daylight.
PV shade screens are particularly designed for areas with excessive ranges of photo voltaic radiation, the place greenhouses are used for intensive managed surroundings agriculture (CEA).
“The efficiency depends upon the extent of shading, which could be adjusted in accordance with the wants of our consumer, and due to this fact the variety of cells within the module,” stated CEO Michael Salvador. “The benefit of the Mirai Display is the restoration mechanism, which permits management of the provision of sunshine for the crops – like a traditional shade display screen – mixed with the flexibleness of utilizing various kinds of crystalline silicon photo voltaic cells with excessive effectivity and stability. This offers our product benefits in efficiency and price in comparison with different PV applied sciences on this discipline.”
The proprietary display screen design has a regular constructing block that’s replicated in arbitrary areas to cowl all or a part of the greenhouse space.
“That is necessary as a result of greenhouse designs aren’t fully standardized,” Salvador stated pv journal. “The output energy depends upon the fraction of sunshine transmission. We normally use photo voltaic cells with effectivity above 22%.
A 60% shading module has a nominal energy of greater than 100 W per sq. meter. Display voltage depends upon display screen dimension, which is a perform of greenhouse design. The voltage is normally 25 V per constructing block and 300 V per display screen part.
“Our display screen was designed with a powerful concentrate on lowering the burden of the module,” stated Michele De Bastiani, director of R&D. “The design with out glass makes the burden lower than 1.5 kg per m2, which permits its deployment contained in the greenhouse utilizing the identical infrastructure as typical shade screens. It additionally protects the PV from the surroundings, particularly already the air pollution and sizzling temperatures, that are quite common in desert areas.”
A typical set up doesn’t present heavy metal constructions, however the firm claims that it may well create a simplified set up mechanism.
“The set up mechanism was co-developed with the German shade display screen specialist Novavert,” stated De Bastiani, noting that Mirai Photo voltaic is operating a number of pilots in numerous areas and plans to introduce a system of turnkey within the fourth quarter of 2023.
The corporate additionally holds mental property associated to the optical properties and lightweight administration capabilities of the display screen.
“The areas of the display screen that aren’t concerned within the manufacturing of electrical energy are tailored for optimized mild transmission and diffusion with a proprietary know-how to keep away from shadowing solid from opaque cells,” stated De Bastiani. “We are actually planning to extend our manufacturing capability.”
Mirai Photo voltaic manufactures the modules in Saudi Arabia, with the help of KAUST.
“As a result of we do not use glass or steel frames and there’s a discount [balance of system], our PV screens will probably be less expensive than typical PV know-how with the scaling of the manufacturing course of,” stated De Bastiani. “The [levelized cost of electricity] relying on the geographic area and the extent of insolation. We goal areas which have [levelized cost of electricity] by $0.03/kWh to $0.05/kWh.”
The corporate has arrange three pilot greenhouses in numerous areas.
“Up to now, the conclusion is that biomass is identical as typical shade screens,” stated De Bastiani. “The financial profit comes from optimizing vitality and yield utilizing our restoration know-how.”
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