Recently, the Team of Smart Meteorology and Utilization of Agro-climate Resources at the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, developed the first nationwide vectorized agrivoltaics distribution and type dataset in China by integrating spatial data of photovoltaic power stations and records of agrivoltaics projects. The related findings have been published in Scientific Data.

Agrivoltaics is a farming method that strategically integrates solar panels with agricultural production, which is a dual-use system that boosts food production while generating clean energy. China is one of the world's leading countries in agrivoltaics. However, there is no standardized vectorized dataset to verify the distribution of agrivoltaics projects in China. This study used comprehensive identification methods based on published spatial data of photovoltaic power stations and records of agrivoltaics projects. The overall accuracy of the dataset in identifying agrivoltaics projects through visual verification is 89.71%.

The results show that by 2022, there were 1,678 agrivoltaics projects in China, with a total installation capacity of 134.55 GW; China launched its first commercial agrivoltaics project in 2010, with the number of new projects per year peaking at 347 in 2017 and having remained at least 140 since then; these projects are mostly crop-based, fishery-photovoltaic complementary, and greenhouse-based ones. This study has filled the data gaps in the industry, providing data support for macro-level management and sustainable development of agrivoltaics.

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (ASTIP).

Linkage: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-06305-w