A two-month field trial (1 August–30 September 2025) was conducted on a farm near Baghdad to investigate how elevating PV modules above a crop affects their electrical output, operational carbon intensity. Monocrystalline and polycrystalline modules were each installed in two ways: close to the ground over bare soil (C-PV) and on a 2 m agrivoltaic frame (AV). In total, 720 observations of I–V curves, module temperature, irradiance and energy yield were collected. The AV modules averaged 63.5 °C and the ground-mounted ones 76.3 °C. That 12.8 °C difference is two to four times the 3–7 °C usually quoted for temperate installations, which suggests elevation pays off most where the heat load is highest. In the two-way ANOVA, both mounting and module type affected efficiency, power gain, energy, carbon intensity and temperature (p < 0.001 for most terms). Efficiency went from 11.25% on C-PV to 15.39% on AV; monocrystalline modules gained more (11.26% → 16.45%) than polycrystalline ones (11.24% → 14.32%). Carbon intensity fell by 29.9% on the AV frame (70.26 → 49.23 g CO2e kWh⁻¹). Since we used fixed emission factors for each technology, this drop reflects only the larger amount of energy delivered per unit of embodied emission. Tomatoes under the panels yielded 3.452 kg m⁻², against 3.635 kg m⁻² in the open-field control (C-Ag); one-way ANOVA (n = 144) gave p = 0.053, i.e. not significant, though only just. The results are set against recent agrivoltaic, land-use and life-cycle studies. Over one season, the raised frame gave more electricity with no measurable yield cost, and the layout deserves wider testing in hot-arid parts of Iraq and central Türkiye.