Using Rhino CAD to model light and tomato crop growth under a semi-transparent solar panels greenhouse. Paper published in Applied Energy
As I was doing my master's in Solar Energy at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, I became increasingly interested in Agriphotovoltaic (APV). APV is combination of using solar panels to transform the sun's energy into electricity, as well as plants for chemical energy. Multiple synergies had already been proven in this field, but I was interested in the synergies that semi-transparent solar cells could bring to APV.
Challenge was finding the right software to model everyhting. Paper is not that interesting but the methodology was novel so we decided to publish (the idea had already been explored in 2-3 papers - but never with a modelling methodology)