Problem Statement

ENCA (Escuela Nacional Central de Agricultura) is Guatemala’s Center for agricultural and forestry education located near Villa Nueva, Guatemala. Currently, ENCA uses shade cropping to reduce sunlight exposure to crops. We are designing an agrivoltaic system to be implemented at ENCA. This system will integrate renewable energy generation with shade crop production. Our goal is to balance crop and energy production with the cost of the system.

Goals and Objectives

Goal: Design a cost effective agrivoltaic system accessible in Guatemala that maximizes energy production while not significantly impacting crop production

Objectives:

• Use Solar Pathfinder to determine effects of shading on panels at the site
• Use Rhino to analyze the affect of panels on plant shading
• Create an economic analysis of the system on a $/kWh basis
• Determine energy production using RETScreen