Agrivoltaics Yield Calculator

How to use this calculator

Enter seven values and the calculator returns installed PV capacity, annual kWh generation, PV revenue, crop retention percentage, crop revenue, total revenue per hectare, and Land Equivalent Ratio:

1. Parcel area (hectares) — only the area dedicated to dual-use, not the whole holding.
2. Ground coverage ratio (%) — share of land surface covered by modules. Australian agrivoltaic typical 30–45 percent; conventional solar farm 60–80 percent.
3. Peak sun hours per day — local annual average. Use 4.0 in Hobart, 4.3 in Melbourne, 4.5 in Sydney, 4.7 in Adelaide, 4.8 in Perth, 5.2 in Brisbane, 5.5 in Dubbo, 5.8 in Mildura, 6.0 in Alice Springs, 6.3 in Darwin.
4. System efficiency (%) — derate factor. CEC-accredited installer default is 78 percent.
5. Electricity rate (A$/kWh) — for self-consumption use your retail rate; for export use your PPA price (typically A$0.05–A$0.075/kWh) or the highest feed-in tariff available.
6. Crop class — shade-tolerant (lettuce, berries, herbs, pasture), moderate (wine grapes, brassicas, olives), sensitive (wheat, sorghum, canola).
7. Baseline crop revenue (A$/ha) — gross margin per hectare before installing panels. ABARES farm survey gives sector averages by region.

The output combines first-principles PV physics with shade-tolerance slopes fitted to Australian and international pilot data.

Why Australian agrivoltaics is the right idea at the right time

Australia has the highest residential solar penetration in the world and a 50 GW utility-scale solar pipeline. It also has 360 million hectares of agricultural land, half of which is pasture. The intersection — putting both uses on the same hectare — was held back until 2022 by three things: lack of MCS-equivalent racking certification, no AEMO-side compatibility guidance, and no agronomic data on Australian native pasture under shade.

All three barriers have lifted. The Clean Energy Council published a Sheep Grazing Best Practice Guide in 2023. The CEFC’s Powering Australian Renewables Fund now finances dual-use sites at the same rates as conventional solar farms. UNE Armidale and Charles Sturt have completed three growing seasons of shade-tolerance trials and published yield curves for ryegrass, lucerne, subterranean clover, fescue, kikuyu, and wheat.

The economic case is the cleanest in the world. Land that produces A$300/ha of pasture grazing now also produces A$50,000/ha of electricity revenue at typical PPA prices — about 170× the gross income per hectare. Even after amortising A$2.5–A$3M of CapEx per MW, net farm income on a dual-use hectare is 30–50× pasture-only income.

Australian crop shade tolerance — what the trials show

Three years of UNE Armidale and Charles Sturt data confirm what international researchers have found in similar climates:

Shade-tolerant (less than 15 percent yield loss at 35 percent panel cover):

• Native and improved pasture — kikuyu, ryegrass, fescue, subterranean clover, lucerne, phalaris
• Wine grapes in hot inland regions (Riverina, Murray-Darling, Sunraysia) — heat-stress relief can improve berry quality
• Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, native finger limes
• Salad leaves — lettuce, rocket, mizuna, chard
• Culinary herbs — basil, parsley, coriander, mint, native bush herbs

Moderate (15–30 percent yield loss at 35 percent panel cover):

• Brassicas — broccoli, cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts
• Olives (moderate shade actually extends harvest window)
• Stone fruit — peaches, plums, nectarines
• Sheep grazing at full stocking rate (some forage substitution)
• Conservation grazing and pollinator strips under panels

Sensitive (30–60 percent yield loss at 35 percent panel cover):

• Wheat, barley, oats
• Sorghum and maize
• Canola and oilseed rape
• Sugarcane (shade kills tillering)
• Cotton (UV-dependent fibre development)

For most southern Australian holdings the economically optimum dual-use design is a 30–40 percent GCR with sheep grazing or specialty horticulture. Cereal cropping underneath panels rarely pencils because grain margins are thin and the shade penalty bites hard.

A worked example — 10-hectare wine-grape block in McLaren Vale

A 10-hectare south-facing parcel, 5.0 PSH, 78 percent derate, A$0.20/kWh effective revenue (mix of self-consumption and PPA export), 35 percent ground coverage ratio, shade-tolerant crop class (wine grapes in a hot climate), A$8,000/ha baseline gross margin (typical premium McLaren Vale block).

• Installed PV: 10 × 617 × 0.35 ≈ 2,160 kW
• Annual generation: 2,160 × 5.0 × 365 × 0.78 = 3,075,000 kWh
• PV revenue: 3,075,000 × A$0.20 = A$615,000 per year
• Crop retention at tolerant × 35%: 1 − 0.15 × 0.35 = 95 percent
• Crop revenue: 10 × A$8,000 × 0.95 = A$76,000 per year
• Total revenue: about A$691,000 per year, or A$69,100 per hectare
• Land Equivalent Ratio: 1.0 + 0.95 = 1.95

Compare to a single-use baseline of 10 × A$8,000 = A$80,000 per year for grapes alone. The dual-use case captures about 8.6× the gross revenue per hectare, before financing. After amortising a A$3.2 million installed cost at 6 percent over 25 years (~A$250,000 per year) plus annual O&M of A$30,000, net income is roughly A$410,000 per year — a step-change versus grapes alone.

Common mistakes when sizing an Australian agrivoltaic project

• Ignoring the Marginal Loss Factor. Inland NSW and northern Victoria have MLFs well below 1.0 — Karadoc and Bannerton have seen MLF drop to 0.75. Revenue is the contract price × MLF. Run AEMO’s MLF history for your connection node before signing offtake.
• Forgetting Vegetation Management Code clearance. Native woody regrowth between panel rows can fall foul of state VMA rules. Build a mowing/grazing schedule into the operations plan.
• Underestimating sheep stocking rate change. Pasture under 35 percent panel cover supports about 85 percent of original DSE/ha. Right-size the flock before assuming wool revenue scales 1:1.
• Skipping the corrosion zone analysis. Coastal NSW, Queensland, and SA sites are in C3 corrosion zones — specify hot-dip galvanised racking, not standard EZA finish. The CEC racking standards list confirms appropriate finishes.
• Forgetting Section 88B easements. Dual-use parcels often need rural utility easements registered against title. Get a surveyor involved before the offtake contract.

Australian incentive stacking

A typical 2.16 MW McLaren Vale dual-use project in 2026:

• LGCs at A$45/MWh: about A$138,000/year on 3.07 GWh
• Self-consumption avoided cost: about A$280,000/year (winery uses 1.4 GWh on-site)
• PPA export at A$60/MWh: about A$98,000/year on residual 1.6 GWh
• SA Home Battery Scheme (if pairing storage): up to A$2,000/kWh battery rebate
• Federal small business asset write-off (full expensing) on ag-PV machinery

PPA prices vary significantly by AEMO node and contract length. Always validate offtake with a renewables broker before sizing CapEx. Sites pairing solar with on-farm battery storage have additional value capture in NEM frequency control ancillary services markets through ESS auctions.

Sources

• Clean Energy Council — Grazing Sheep on Solar Farms Best Practice — Australian industry reference for dual-use solar
• ARENA — Agrivoltaics in Australia — funded research programmes and pilot sites
• University of New England — Solar+Crops Trial Data — Armidale shade-tolerance studies
• ABARES Farm Survey Data — gross margin benchmarks by region and enterprise
• AER — National Electricity Market data — wholesale prices and Marginal Loss Factors by node
• Clean Energy Regulator — Renewable Energy Target — LGC and SRES eligibility
• SunWiz — Australian solar market reports — large-scale project pipeline data