CEE 4210
Solar-driven vertical farming in Manila
Result in one line
A 28-page feasibility study with an economic model, built around an agrivoltaic LCOE of $0.0528 per kWh.
Context
- Course
- CEE 4210
- Semester
- Fall 2024
- Team
- Amida Akpan, Jade Malendez, Jakobi Davis, Jasmine Mustafa, Teresa Crisantos-Prudencio
- My part
- Project lead on a five-person team, and delivered most of the final presentation.
The problem
Vertical farms run on electricity, so the price of that power decides whether the farm works. Manila has strong sun and a real need for local food. The question was whether solar could power a farm there cheaply enough.
What we built
Our five-person team wrote a 28-page feasibility study: the solar design, where it could go in Manila, and the farm it would power. We modeled the solar output in NREL's PVWatts and built the economic model in Python.
What we found
- Agrivoltaic LCOE, per kWh$0.0528
- Feasibility study28 pages
- Team members5
The rooftop solar setup comes out to $0.0528 per kWh. That's cheap enough to keep the idea alive for Manila.
Where it stops working
That number depends on our assumptions for interest rates, how much sun the panels actually catch, and what the system costs to build. It's a feasibility study, not a final design. There's no structural design, permitting, or plan for running the farm day to day.