photo credit: Märlardalen University. (project partner)
Agrivoltaics is the combination of solar cells and agriculture. The general idea is that the synergies of the systems in the field is not only possible, but can lead to greater economic utilisation / profit of any given land area while also maintaining food production.
Results from a trial in Belgium, within a farming system similar to typical Skåne agriculture, shows promising results: Potential of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) production in vertical bifacial, tracked, or elevated agrivoltaic systems in Belgium.
NBR AND AGRIVOLTAICS
NBR landed in an Agrivoltaics project quite possibily as a result of the IIRB2022 presentation at Mons given by Bram van de Poel of KU Leuven: his presentation showed that the system can work in sugar beet. The current project is lead and largely financed by Region Skåne. It is largely a response to the large number of applications for solar parks in the county, mainly on agricultural land. NBR wants to be able to understand how sugar beet production would be affected by rows of solid panels in the field, should growers start to adopt the system.
NBR will be a part of Work Package 3: Agriculture – crops and design. This work package is lead by Daniel Nilsson from the Biosystems and Technology department of SLU, Alnarp.
The project runs from 2023 to 2027. Read more about it at https://utveckling.skane.se/tema/solbruk
