A field study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Agrivoltaic (AV) mounting on photovoltaic (PV) performance, operational carbon intensity, and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) yield in Baghdad's hot-arid climate between 1 August and 30 September 2025. A randomised complete block design compared two crystalline PV technologies (monocrystalline and polycrystalline) under conventional ground-mounted (C-PV) and elevated AV configurations. Among 720 observations, I–V characteristics, module temperature, irradiance, and energy yield were recorded. AV modules operated at markedly lower temperatures, with a mean temperature of 63.5 °C, compared to 76.3 °C for ground-mounted modules. This 12.8 ° C reduction considerably exceeds the 3-7 °C decrease typically reported for temperate agrivoltaic installations, indicating that elevated mounting provides the greatest thermal advantage in hot-arid climates. Two-way ANOVA showed highly significant effects of mounting configuration and PV type on efficiency, power gain, energy yield, carbon intensity, and thermal regulation (p < 0.001 for most sources). The mean conversion efficiency increased from 11.25% (C-PV) to 15.39% (AV), with monocrystalline modules benefiting the most (11.26% 16.45%) relative to polycrystalline modules (11.24% 14.32%). The operational carbon intensity decreased by 29.9% under mounting of AV (70.26 → 49.23 g CO2e kWh-1), driven by the higher energy yield per unit of embodied emission rather than by any change in the emission factor itself. A supplementary one-way ANOVA (n = 144) found no statistically significant differences in tomato yield between AV and open field control (C-Ag) (3.452 vs 3.635 kg m-2, p = 0.053), indicating agronomic feasibility without practical yield penalty. These findings are discussed in relation to recent international literature on agrivoltaic, land use efficiency, and life-cycle-assessment literature, and support Agrivoltaics as a technically robust and agronomically compatible strategy for hot-arid regions such as central Iraq and central Türkiye.