Techno-economic assessment and stakeholder perspectives on agrivoltaics in East Africa

Agrivoltaics (AV) can co-produce food crops and electricity while improving water conservation in East Africa; however, a lack of understanding of stakeholder perspectives and concerns over economic viability inhibits investment and uptake of the technology. This study addresses this knowledge gap by investigating stakeholder perspectives in East Africa and quantifying the financial economics – including a breakdown of CAPEX and OPEX, net present value, return on investment, internal rate of return, payback period and levelised cost of energy – of five AV scenarios based on two case studies in Kenya and Tanzania. Both AV and conventional ground-mounted solar parks are profitable in these scenarios, with net present values ranging 765–1680 USD/kWp. Mounting structures and battery storage systems dominate the CAPEX costs, with mounting structures comprised 45% of the CAPEX without battery storage, and conventional ground-mounted systems are 16–27% cheaper to install but income from crop sales partly compensates the higher CAPEX cost of AV and facilitates profitable co-use of land. While conventional ground-mounted solar parks breakeven approximately one to three years earlier than AV in the studied scenarios, the latter can be financially competitive, offer a diversified income source from the same area of land, and concomitantly benefit the food-energy-water nexus. A feed-in tariff in Kenya would boost economic viability of both PV and AV projects. These findings indicate that AV represent a viable land-use strategy for solar energy expansion in East Africa where co-benefits from land use in addition to electricity generation are valued.