Perhaps it is not the best of metaphors given that one of its main objectives is to contribute to a more sustainable development model, but Iberdrola has just “killed two birds with one stone”. One in the energy field. Another, in viticulture. In other words, the company has managed to score a manual “win win” thanks to the application of the agrovoltaic model.
And also achieving claimsa landmark in Spain.
What is this agrovoltaic? A sum of efforts and interests between agriculture and energy, two sectors with a more than respectable weight in Spain. The model seeks to establish synergies between both fields, which mutually benefit from sharing something basic: land.
In agrovoltaic plants, solar panels are installed in areas dedicated to cultivation or livestock in order to make the use of the land profitable. While the lettuce, carrots, fodder for the cows grow… energy is generated that can facilitate the self-consumption of the farms.
And what did Iberdrola just do? Well, to start up an installation of this type that —says the company— will be a pioneer in Spain. The plant in question is located in the town of Guadamur, Toledo, in the vineyards of González Byass and Grupo Emperador, and has been given a name that leaves little to the imagination: winesolar. For its start-up, the company has had the collaboration of two specialized firms, Techedge and PVH.
The endowment has a pilot character and about 40 kW of capacity, energy that will be used entirely for self-consumption by the wineries themselves. Thanks to this extra supply of current from renewable sources, the Toledo winery hopes to advance in decarbonisation and reduce costs.
And is it already? No. What makes Winesolar so special is that it is an “intelligent agrovoltaic plant”, the first of its kind in Spain, boasts Iberdrola. what of smart It is explained by the operation of the installation, which instead of acting as a sum of fixed panels will adapt to the exploitation. “It allows the layout of the modules to be adapted to the needs of the vineyards to regulate the incidence of the sun and the temperature through the shade of the panels”, Explain.
“The installation will have trackers controlled by an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of determining the optimal position of the solar panels placed on the vines at any given time”, company abounds. In this way, its degree of inclination varies depending on what the sensors installed in the vineyards indicate about —among other variables— solar radiation, the level of humidity in the soil, the thickness of the trunk of the vine or even the conditions of the wind.
?+☀️= Winesolar, winning project of the Start-up Challenge of #innovation of Iberdrola.
Solar panels between the vineyards provide great advantages: they improve the quality of the grapes ?, the efficiency of the soil and generate 100% clean energy to reduce the winery’s bill. pic.twitter.com/29QYuT1khg
— Iberdrola (@iberdrola) October 3, 2022
Energy… and an efficient system. The electricity company goes further and ensures that the agrovoltaic will not only allow the winery to obtain energy; it will also boost your efficiency. “It will contribute to improving the quality of the grapes, will allow a more efficient use of the land, will reduce the consumption of irrigation water and will improve the resistance of the crop to climatic conditions, given the increase in temperatures and the increasingly frequent waves of heat”, reflect from Iberdrola.
The company presents Winesolar as an “example” of the advantages of the model and renewables in the rural and primary sector. Over the next year, it will monitor the results precisely to “continue perfecting” a system that it already plans to replicate in other farms in Spain.
A road that already comes from behind. Iberdrola is not the first and certainly not the only company to consider exploring the possibilities of agrovoltaics, a concept that may not have enjoyed great popularity until now, but which already had defenders 30 years ago, in the 1980s.
In Germany, Mali, Gambia, Chile, the United States or China, among other countries, they have also tested the model and right here, in Spain, Repsol recently announced an alliance with Powerfultree to exploit projects with this type of technology. To begin with, they proposed a pilot in a wine estate of the San Gabriel School of Oenology, in Aranda de Duero.
The model promises, of course: a study published in 2019 in the prestigious magazine Nature calculated that if we dedicated 1% of arable land to photovoltaic generation, we would have enough to offset the global demand for energy.
Cover Image | Iberdrola
