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Original Article | Open Access

Carbon Footprints

Salmerón et al. Carbon Footprints 2026, 5, 17 DOI:10.20517/cf.2025.112

Life-cycle environmental analysis of combined
biochar and agrivoltaic systems in Andalusian olive
groves

María Salmerón, Francesco Cherubini, Nariê Rinke Dias de Souza

Keywords:
Life cycle assessment,
carbon sequestration,
climate mitigation,
sustainable agriculture, solar
power, soil erosion, energy
transition

Citation: Salmerón, M.;
Cherubini, F.; Dias de
Souza, N. R. Life-cycle
environmental analysis of
combined biochar and
agrivoltaic systems in
Andalusian olive groves.
Carbon Footprints 2026, 5, 17.
https://dx.doi.org/10.20517
/cf.2025.112
Abstract
Received: 28 Nov 2025
First Decision: 5 Jan 2026 Agricultural activities in Spain are increasingly vulnerable to water scarcity and soil
Revised: 19 Jan 2026 degradation, exacerbated by farming intensification and climate change. Alongside, the
Accepted: 30 Jan 2026 need for renewable energy generation expansion and negative emission technologies risk
Published: 18 Mar 2026
increasing land use conflicts. Sustainable strategies to reconcile measures to improve
Academic Editor: agricultural resilience with the renewable energy transition should be explored. This study
Reinout Heijungs evaluates the life-cycle environmental performance of integrating biochar production from
Copy Editor: residues from the local olive oil value chain with agrivoltaic systems in Andalusian olive
Fangling Lan groves. Five scenarios consider various constraints for regional biomass availability and for
Production Editor:
Fangling Lan agrivoltaic deployment. A spatial analysis identifies the olive groves that are most suitable
for agrivoltaic installation and prioritizes high-erosion groves for biochar application.
Integrating these technologies delivers climate change mitigation, in some cases achieving
net negative emissions and reducing global warming potential by up to 173% relative to
conventional farming. Biochar-induced soil carbon storage transforms the agroecosystem
from a net source of emissions (2.14 t CO 2 -eq ha ) to a carbon sink (-7.90 t CO 2 -eq ha ),
-1
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while reducing soil erosion and improving water retention. Agrivoltaic systems further

Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU),
Trondheim 7034, Norway.

Correspondence to: María Salmerón, Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian
University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim 7034, Norway. E-mail: mariasalme9@gmail.com; Prof. Francesco Cherubini,
Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU),
Trondheim 7034, Norway. E-mail: francesco.cherubini@ntnu.no

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