solar and agriculture

The Israel Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Agriculture have decided to implement a pilot research program to assess the feasibility of agrivoltaic projects in the country. The possibility of combining PV and agriculture in a land with limited land availability and increasing energy demand is considered a win-win solution by the government.

The Jamaican government has tendered a solar project intended at powering a water treatment plant and has also announced it will power, with PV, all irrigation systems operated by the National Irrigation Commission.

Researchers in Norway have mapped all cropland areas that were abandoned between 1992 and 2015 and found that the vast majority is suitable for PV and bioenergy deployment. Around 30% is located in Asia, followed by the Americas, with a 28% share, and Africa, with a percentage of 22%. Europe and Oceania had shares of 20% and 5%, respectively.

Solar power developers have until December 28 to bid for an aggregate 6.4 GW of grid-connected solar power capacity in Andhra Pradesh, which will be spread across 10 locations in the state. The Andhra Pradesh Green Energy Corporation will serve as the offtaker and supply the power procured from these projects to meet the demand of agricultural loads in the state.

Endesa plans to set up beekeeping projects at two of its PV plants. The pilot initiative will include the cultivation of 3 hectares of plants that will be pollinated by bees.

Sun’Agri and RGreen Invest have launched an initiative aimed at deploying around 300 agrivoltaic projects in France by 2025.

Belgian researchers are testing agrivoltaic power generation in a pear orchard. The first pilot project features specially designed 185 W solar panels with transparent backsheets, conventional silicon cells, and a 21% efficiency rate.

German tech company Tube Solar AG has secured €10.8 million to develop its cylindrical agrivoltaic modules. The lightweight devices could also be used on roofs until now considered unsuitable for PV.

The Internet of Things (IOT)-enabled solar tree — using 35 solar PV panels with a 330 Wp capacity each — is especially useful for the agricultural community in providing electricity for high-capacity water pumps, e-tractors and e-power tillers. It can also allow precision agriculture through IoT-enabled features such as real-time humidity, wind speed, rainfall prediction and soil health monitoring.

State utility SA Water is partnering with an environmental organization to ‘re-vegetate’ almost a ton of native seedlings under a large scale solar arrays. Beneath the ground-mounted PV projects, native vegetation should return to the formerly agricultural land, and the resulting scrub is expected to protect panels from soiling.