Drazen_ | E+ | Getty PhotosSwedish power agency Vattenfall has been given a allow to construct a undertaking within the Netherlands that plans to m
Drazen_ | E+ | Getty Photos
Swedish power agency Vattenfall has been given a allow to construct a undertaking within the Netherlands that plans to mix solar energy with farming, within the newest instance of how renewables and agriculture can doubtlessly dovetail with each other.
In an announcement earlier this week Annemarie Schouten, Vattenfall’s head of photo voltaic growth for the Netherlands, defined how the undertaking would “alternate rows of panels with strips the place numerous crops are grown for natural farming.”
The pilot, generally known as Symbizon, is slated to final 4 years and be positioned in Almere, to the east of Amsterdam. Funding has come from the Dutch Ministry of Financial Affairs.
Schouten stated that double-sided photo voltaic panels can be used to be able to guarantee “ample gentle yield.” Such a setup would additionally allow the panels to “catch the mirrored gentle from the soil, the crops and the adjoining rows and use it to supply photo voltaic power.”
Whereas plans have taken a step ahead, Vattenfall has but to substantiate if the undertaking will truly progress. A call on that is anticipated by the top of 2021. If it does get the inexperienced gentle, development work will begin in 2022.
A variety of stakeholders are set to be concerned if the scheme is totally realized. These embrace impartial analysis group TNO, which might develop a “photo voltaic monitoring algorithm” to trace power and crop yields, amongst different issues.
The thought of deploying photo voltaic panels on farmland has been round for a few years. One strand of that is referred to as agrivoltaics, which additionally goes by the identify of agrophotovoltaics.
In keeping with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Photo voltaic Power Methods ISE, agrivoltaics “permits the twin use of land for harvesting agriculture and photo voltaic power.”
The thought behind the idea traces its roots again to the early 1980s and is attributed to Adolf Goetzberger, founding father of Fraunhofer ISE, and his colleague Armin Zastrow.
In keeping with the Institute, agrivoltaic installations grew from round 5 megawatts in 2012 to roughly 2.9 gigawatts in 2018.
Photo voltaic panels can be used to assist these working in agriculture with their day-to-day actions. The Meals and Agriculture Group of the United Nations, for example, has famous that “photo voltaic applied sciences have gotten a viable choice for each giant and small-scale farmers.”
In 2020, CNBC’s “Sustainable Power” reported on how one Zimbabwe primarily based farmer, Cheneso Ndlovu, was utilizing photo voltaic tech to assist her develop produce.
“We do gardening utilizing a photo voltaic powered borehole for watering,” she stated.
“We planted tomatoes on a small patch we have been watering and we realized it was thriving, so we determined to develop different greens,” she added. “We use the water for different home wants like washing.”