Analysis of Sustainability and the Use of Renewable Energy in the Production of Potatoes in Semi-Arid Agricultural Systems

The potato production process in Konya, Türkiye, was evaluated through a cumulative and system-oriented approach. A functional unit of one ton of potatoes produced was used for all analyses, using region-specific agricultural input data. In this study, the cumulative energy consumption (CEnC), exergy consumption (CExC), and CO2 emissions (CCO2E) of the agricultural production process were determined. Specifically, the sustainability performance of the potato production process was examined through thermodynamic indicators. The results indicate that nitrogen fertilizer accounts for the highest CEnC, reaching 368.94 MJ per ton of potato produced, followed by diesel fuel at 179.64 MJ/ton and electricity at 91.79 MJ/ton. However, the CExC assessment revealed a different pattern, with electricity emerging as the dominant source of exergy depletion. Electricity consumption accounted for 382.75 MJ/ton, representing the largest exergy burden among all inputs, while diesel (166.21 MJ/ton) and nitrogen (154.28 MJ/ton) followed as secondary contributors. A similar trend was observed in the carbon emission analysis. Electricity use resulted in the highest CCO2E value at 12.85 kg CO2/ton, whereas diesel contributed 2.94 kg CO2/ton. Emissions from chemical fertilizers remained notably low, with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium generating only 0.42, 0.22 and 0.75 kg CO2/ton, respectively. The sustainability indicators further highlighted the system’s performance. The cumulative degree of perfection (CDP) was calculated as 7.34, while the renewability indicator (RI) reached 0.86, suggesting that potato production in Konya demonstrates relatively high thermodynamic efficiency and a strong potential for renewable energy integration. Under a scenario in which agrivoltaic systems (AVS) and fully electric agricultural machinery replace conventional energy inputs, the CDP increased markedly to 21.61 and the RI to 0.95. To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first thermodynamic analysis of potato production in Türkiye that integrates sustainability indicators with an AVS integration scenario. The proposed framework provides a practical decision support approach for evaluating the integration of renewable energy into agricultural production systems.