As part of the “Agri-PV Baden-Württemberg model region” research project, we are working together with the Vollmer fruit farm, the Augustenberg Agricultural Technology Centre (LTZ), the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Kehl University of Applied Sciences and the Oberkirch public utility company to create optimal conditions for plants under photovoltaic systems and at the same time use the limited area efficiently to generate energy, thereby counteracting the rapidly advancing climate change.
With the aim of sustainably promoting regional agriculture, conserving resources and enabling farmers to generate additional income by producing energy locally, various agrivoltaic systems with a total output of 880 kWp were installed on an area of 1.5 hectares.
The various systems include a fixed installation with opaque PV modules, a hydraulically driven tracking system that automatically adapts to the needs of the plants and a PV berry tunnel with semi-transparent modules. Various apple, plum, pear, kiwi, kiwi berry and blackberry varieties were planted underneath in order to be able to analyse results for different fruit crops.
What is special about this construction is that the substructure of the PV modules also serves as a trellis system, the modules protect the plants from heat burn and the tracking system developed by Intech allows the modules to be mounted and aligned as required.
Further information on the project can be found at www.agripv-bw.de/standorte/obsthof-vollmer/