Food, water and energy are three essential resources for human well-being, poverty reduction and sustainable development. These resources are very much linked to one another, meaning that the actions in any one particular area often can have effects in one or both of the other areas. At the same time, an economy's shift towards climate neutrality requires a massive expansion of energy production from renewable sources. Among these ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) and biomass will be expanded massively to meet the clean energy generation goal, simultaneously influence regional water and food availability and supply security. It is crucial to understand Food-Water-Energy Nexus (FWE) nexus during the energy transition. However, current studies have limitation both methodically (qualitative assessments) and spatially (aggregated data on a national level is more available). Firstly, a consistent share input data set in geographical format was created with the resolution of building/field. An energy simulation platform (SimStadt) was then extended with new workflows on biomass potential, ground-mounted PV potential, food demand/potential, and urban water demand. Combining with existing workflows on urban building heating/electricity demand and roof PV potential, the dissertation created a complete simulation environmental covering most-relating FWE topics in energy transition with consistent input and output structures at a fine resolution. Secondly, the most representative inter-linkage between ground-mounted PV and biomass on hinterland is investigated in details with the new tools. The output data of each field from ground-mounted PV and biomass workflows are linked and ranked according to the scenarios emphasizing PV yield, feasibility, profit, or biomass. The assessment and scenarios are applied at three representative German counties with distinguished land-use structures and geometries as case studies. Results show that current policies does not guarantee the technically efficient allocation of fields. The optimal technical strategy is to follow the individual market profit drive, which is very likely, at the same time for the social good, to achieve high PV yields with limited biomass losses and more significant crop water-saving effects. The local food, water, and energy demands are also included as a metric for resource allocation on the potential side. Besides focusing on the biomass-PV tradeoff simulation and analysis, pioneer works have also been done to test the transferability of the method in cases outside Germany, and the complement of urban solid waste to agricultural biomass is explored to achieve energy autarky.

Markmonterade solcellsanläggningar i norra Sverige behöver ta hänsyn till förekomsten av snö och risken för markinterferens, vilket innebär att snömängden i framkant av panelerna gör att den snö som ackumuleras ovanpå inte kan glida av. Följden blir skuggning av panelerna som därmed får nedsatt eller helt utebliven elproduktion. Syftet med arbetet var att besvara frågeställningar kring vilken montagehöjd som krävs för att undvika problemet samt om den ökade engångskostnaden kompenseras av potentialen till ökad produktion under vintermånaderna. Metoden bestod främst av att jämföra produktionsdata från en solpark i Östersund med värden för solinstrålning och snödjup från SMHI för att avgöra vilken effekt snöskuggning haft på produktionen och hur utfallet skulle ha sett ut vid olika monteringshöjder av anläggningen. Resultaten visar att det finns stor potential till goda produktionsvärden under vårvintern, förutsatt att markinterferens inte finns närvarande. Anledningen beror troligtvis på högt albedo från snötäckt mark och lägre lufttemperaturer vilket har en positiv inverkan på modulernas verkningsgrad. En beräkningsmodell utvecklades för att uppskatta en lämplig monteringshöjd för en solpark utifrån dess tänkta utformning och det förväntade snödjupet på platsen. Förhoppningen är att modellen kan bidra till ökad kunskap för att främja utbyggnad av markmonterade solcellsanläggningar även på nordliga breddgrader. Lönsamheten för ett högre montage undersöktes genom en jämförelse mellan ett prisexempel från en uppförd solpark och ett uppskattat produktionsbortfall från solparken i Östersund vid en teoretiskt lägre monteringshöjd. Det visade att en höjning av Östersundsparken från 50 till 90 centimeter skulle betala av sig enbart genom tillskottet i produktion under perioden februari till april de tre första vintrarna. / Ground-mounted PV installations in northern Sweden need to consider the presence of snow and the risk of ground interference, meaning that the buildup of snow in front of the panels prevents the snow accumulated on top from sliding off. The result is shading of the panels, which in turn reduces or eliminates the electricity production. The purpose of this work was to answer questions regarding the mounting height required to avoid this problem and whether the increased one-time cost for higher mounting is compensated for by the enhanced production during winter months. The method consisted mainly of comparing production data from a solar park in Östersund to solar radiation values and snow depth from SMHI to determine the effect of snow shading on production and the outcome at different installation heights of the plant. The results showed that there is great potential for valuable energy production during the late winter season, provided that ground interference is not present. This is probably due to high albedo from snow-covered ground and lower air temperatures resulting in a positive impact on the efficiency of the modules. A computational model was developed to estimate a suitable mounting height for a solar park based on the intended design and expected snow depth at the site. The intention is that the model can contribute to increased knowledge to promote the deployment of ground-mounted PV systems in northern latitudes. The profitability of higher mounting was investigated by comparing a price example from an existing solar facility and an estimated production loss from the solar park in Östersund at a theoretical lower mounting height. It showed that  increasing the height of the Östersund site from 50 to 90 centimeters in front would pay off solely on the enhanced production during the period February to April of the first three winters.