Grow food and solar power on the same land.
AgriFlow Solar is a smart irrigation system powered by agrivoltaics and the Internet of Things. Solar panels above the crops generate clean energy, while field sensors and an industrial controller deliver exactly the water each crop needs.
Farming is the world's biggest water user — and water is running out.
Every drop and every square metre of farmland has to work harder. Irrigation that guesses wastes both water and energy.
of global freshwater withdrawals go to agriculture, the world's largest user of water.
people live in agricultural areas with high levels of water shortage and scarcity.
of the world's irrigated cropland is water-stressed.
fall in available freshwater per person globally over the past two decades.
Source: UN News, reporting FAO's State of Food and Agriculture 2020
One field. Two harvests.
Agrivoltaics means installing solar panels above or between crops, so the same land produces both food and renewable electricity. The panels' partial shade also changes how much water crops lose.
AgriFlow Solar uses this dual land use to power its own irrigation — and models how shading affects each crop, so water and energy are balanced automatically.
Conventional farmland
Grows food, but irrigation pumps rely on grid or diesel power.
Ground-mounted solar
Generates clean power, but takes land out of food production.
Smart agrivoltaics
Food and solar power on the same land, with sun-powered, sensor-driven irrigation.
Sense. Connect. Decide. Irrigate.
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01
Sense the field
Distributed sensors across the farm measure field and crop conditions in real time.
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02
Connect over LoRaWAN
Low-power, long-range wireless links carry sensor data across wide fields without cabling.
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03
Decide with a PLC
An industrial PLC controller runs the real-time analytics and the dynamic crop model.
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04
Irrigate with solar
Water is delivered where and when crops need it, powered by the panels overhead.
An industrial-grade IoT stack, from soil to sun.
AgriFlow Solar combines proven industrial automation with modern IoT networking, so it is robust enough for the field and smart enough to adapt.
What AgriFlow Solar manages for you.
Water conservation
Irrigation follows real-time field data instead of fixed schedules, cutting waste.
Crop-health prediction
Analytics spot stress early so farmers can act before yield is lost.
Energy efficiency
Solar output and pump demand are managed together for efficient operation.
Yield forecasting
A dynamic crop model adapts to changing climate to forecast yields more accurately.
Tested in simulation and real-world case studies.
The framework was evaluated in MATLAB through simulations and real-world case studies, and benchmarked against baseline methods across five performance measures.
Performance measures
- Power generation
- Irrigation supply
- Crop yield
- Irrigation water productivity
- Voltage & current
Method
System behaviour modelled under varying field and climate conditions.
The framework applied to practical agrivoltaic scenarios.
Results compared with existing methods on every measure.
Source: Rashid et al., IEEE Access, vol. 13, pp. 118293–118309 (2025). doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3586204
For everyone who works the land — and powers it.
Farmers
Use less water and energy, protect crops from heat and drought stress, and plan with better yield forecasts.
Solar developers
Install renewable capacity on productive farmland instead of competing with it.
Water-scarce regions
Make every litre count where irrigation water is limited and climate is changing.
Engineers building the farms of the future.
AgriFlow Solar was founded in 2025 by a research team uniting engineering design with hands-on engineering technology.
Faculty of Engineering
Designs the system: agrivoltaic layout, energy modelling, control logic and crop-water models.
Faculty of Engineering Technologies
Builds and integrates the hardware: PLC programming, sensor nodes, LoRaWAN networking and field installation.
Frequently asked questions
What is AgriFlow Solar?
A smart irrigation system that runs on solar power from agrivoltaic panels installed above crops, using IoT sensors and a PLC controller to manage farm water efficiently.
What does "agrivoltaics" mean?
Using the same land for both agriculture and solar power generation, usually by mounting solar panels above or between rows of crops.
Why use a PLC controller?
PLCs are industrial controllers built for harsh, outdoor and always-on environments, making them a reliable brain for field irrigation and energy control.
Why LoRaWAN?
LoRaWAN is a low-power, long-range wireless network, well suited to connecting battery-powered sensors spread across large fields.
How was the system tested?
Through MATLAB simulations and real-world case studies, comparing it with baseline methods on power generation, irrigation supply, yield, irrigation water productivity, and voltage and current.
Built on open, peer-reviewed research.
Read the open-access IEEE Access study behind AgriFlow Solar's water-management and crop-modelling framework.
Rashid, S. A., Ataalla, A. F., Al Mashhadany, Y. I. M., Algburi, S. S., & Arsad, N. (2025). Next-generation water management and crop modeling of sustainable energy in PLC based on agrivoltaics systems with IoT. IEEE Access, 13, 118293–118309.
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3586204