Rice Farming and Agrivoltaics

Rice is the staple food of the Japanese people, and rice farming is also being used in agrivoltaics.

A shading ratio of around 35% is suitable for growing rice, and famous varieties such as Koshihikari and Akitakomachi are grown here.

Planting of Akitakomachi rice

Impacts on the growing environment include slightly cooler water temperatures and delayed ripening, which generally delays the harvest time by about one week.

However, a slight delay in growth is not a problem for farmers, as the income from the sale of electricity from solar power generation is about 10 times higher than the production value of rice.

Since it is not practical to install agrivoltaic systems in all the paddy fields without any gaps, only some of them are installed to support the farmers' income.

With the increasing automation of agricultural machinery used in paddy fields, the decline in workability and other problems are expected to eventually improve.