ASSESSING THE FEASIBILITY OF AGRIVOLTAICS SYSTEMS FOR SUSTAINABLE LAND USE: A SIMULATION-BASED EVALUATION OF ENERGY GENERATION AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN BEHEIRA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT

Egypt’s agricultural development and solar energy exploitation are competing for the country’s limited land and water resources, and this conflict is particularly prominent in high-yield agricultural regions such as the Nile Delta. While the agrivoltaics strategy, which enables dual use of land for both photovoltaic power generation and crop cultivation, has been proposed, there is a lack of assessment of its actual on-site performance at the provincial level in Egypt, and a clear research gap persists in Buhara Province, the nation’s major wheat-producing region. This study set up two scenarios on a 1-hectare local plot: a standalone photovoltaic array scenario with 70% coverage, and an agrivoltaic scenario with 40% coverage, to verify the feasibility of this model for sustainable land use. PVsyst simulation was used to estimate energy generation and techno-economic performance, while wheat productivity was assessed using a shading-based yield reduction assumption derived from similar agrivoltaics and crop-shading studies. The 70% solar-only PV scenario recorded an annual PV array output of 2,626.9 MWh/year and exported 2,490.7 MWh/year to the grid, generating an estimated annual electricity revenue of USD 99,628. It achieved an LCOE of USD 0.042/kWh, a payback period of 11.7 years, an NPV of USD 684,422.64, and an ROI of 71.6%. The 40% agrivoltaics scenario recorded an annual PV array output of 1,502.5 MWh/year and exported 1,404.8 MWh/year to the grid, generating USD 56,192/year from electricity sales. Under partial PV shading, wheat yield was estimated at 5.14 t/ha compared with 6.59 t/ha under open-field conditions, giving a combined annual return of USD 57,023.13–57,112.47. Although the solar-only scenario showed stronger direct financial performance, the agrivoltaics scenario achieved an LER of approximately 1.35, indicating 35% higher land-use efficiency than separate wheat cultivation and PV production. The results show that agrivoltaics can support food production, renewable energy generation, carbon-emission reduction, and more efficient land-use planning in Beheira Governorate.