According to estimates, the yields for farmers will be up to 20 percent lower.
(Photo: Fraunhofer)
Dusseldorf Just a few kilometers from Bonn, in Gelsdorf in Rhineland-Palatinate, there are a few solar systems that look normal at first glance. Only those who take a closer look will recognize the apple trees under the photovoltaic modules.
For two years, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) has been researching the effects of solar modules on agricultural land together with the renewable energy company Baywa Re. Agrophotovoltaics (Agri-PV) is what experts call this process, in which areas are used for agriculture and energy generation with solar modules at the same time. “It has great potential, but it’s still a niche,” says Baywa Re-CEO Mathias Taft in an interview with the Handelsblatt.
There are many variants: in Gelsdorf, the solar modules protect the trees from wind and weather, elsewhere they lie on five-meter-high steel frames, under which the tractors drive. There are also vertically installed solar collectors that collect the sun on both sides. The sheep graze on the pasture in between.
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