SPADE Agrivoltaic Design Software

Background, Description, Delivery and Learning Objective The biggest technical barrier for agrivoltaics to achieve rapid deployment is optimization of the “3 C’s” - Crop type and system Configuration for a given Climate. Uncertainties in optimization, unknowns about agronomic feasibility, and challenging financial calculations are impeding the ability to design new solutions and scale the commercialization of the concept. Accurately modeling system performance metrics, crop output and economic returns will significantly increase agrivoltaic adoption.

SPADE Agrivoltaic Design Software began development through the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) American Made Challenge (AMC) Solar Prize Competition for Software in October 2021. SPADE is partnered with Ladybug Tools and NREL to increase accessibility to state-of-art irradiance and economic modeling for agrivoltaic systems.