From pv magazine France
Swiss company Insolight commissioned its latest agrivoltaic installation on September 18th, built on the site of one of its partners, the Agroscope Federal Center for Agronomy, in Conthey, Switzerland.
“This isn't our first pilot installation on the site. We started in 2021 with two small solar demonstrators that were used to power our models, before building a 250 kW installation on raspberry and strawberry crops, which was inaugurated in 2023. But this is our first agrivoltaic plant on tree crops, with three types of fruit trees: apple, pear, and apricot, and various technical implementations,” Mathieu Ackerman, co-founder and CTO of Insolight, told pv magazine France.
The 250 kW experimental installation covers an area of 4,000 m² and includes two sub-zones: one with trackers and the other composed of fixed panels in landscape orientation, installed on the rows of trees in a specific orientation. It is equipped with opaque and semi-transparent PERC panels, anti-hail nets, and rainproof tarpaulins, which can be deployed in several locations.
Capable of producing 300 MWh per year, the modules rest on a special steel structure, mounted 4.50 meters high on driven piles, with rows spaced 4 to 5 meters apart.
To study the impact of solar energy production on tree crops, a fleet of sensors was installed, measuring temperature, light levels, and soil moisture content. “Accessible to farmers via our in-house developed ‘Insoinsights' platform, the collected data allows us to test all sorts of combinations,” explains Mathieu Ackerman.
Connected to the grid and monitored, the agrivoltaic plant was financed by the distributor Romande Energie. “As a project management assistant, Insolight is not intended to invest in installations,” states its founder. As for the energy produced, it is fully fed into the grid for a period of 15 years, sold at a variable government tariff, which, in Switzerland, offers little long-term guarantee. The solar electricity is also sold to Denner, a distributor of the Migros group, as part of a PPA.
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