This paper presents the field measured data of the ambient temperature profile and the heat stress occurrences directly underneath ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays (monocrystalline-based), focusing on different temperature levels. A previous study has shown that a 1 °C increase in PV cell temperature results in a reduction of 0.5% in energy conversion efficiency; thus, the temperature factor is critical, especially to solar farm operators. The transpiration process also plays an important role in the cooling of green plants where, on average, it could dissipate a significant amount of the total solar energy absorbed by the leaves, making it a good natural cooling mechanism. It was found from this work that the PV system’s bottom surface temperature was the main source of dissipated heat, as shown in the thermal images recorded at 5-min intervals at three sampling times. A statistical analysis further showed that the thermal correlation for the transpiration process and heat stress occurrences between the PV system’s bottom surface and plant height will be an important factor for large scale plant cultivation in agrivoltaic farms.

Irrigation practices change the soil moisture in agricultural fields and influence emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). A 2 yr field study was conducted to assess carbon dioxide (CO₂) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from surface and subsurface drip irrigated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) fields on a loamy sand in southern Ontario. Surface and subsurface drip irrigation are common irrigation practices used by tomato growers in southern Ontario. The N₂O fluxes were generally ≤50 μg N₂O-N m⁻² h⁻¹, with mean cumulative emissions ranging between 352 ± 83 and 486 ± 138 mg N₂O-N m⁻². No significant difference in N₂O emissions between the two drip irrigation practices was found in either study year. Mean CO₂ fluxes ranged from 22 to 160 mg CO₂-C m² h⁻¹ with cumulative fluxes between 188 ± 42 and 306 ± 31 g CO₂-C m⁻². Seasonal CO₂ emissions from surface drip irrigation were significantly greater than subsurface drip irrigation in both years, likely attributed to sampling time temperature differences. We conclude that these irrigation methods did not have a direct effect on the GHG emissions from tomato fields in this study. Therefore, both irrigation methods are expected to have similar environmental impacts and are recommended to growers.