The Superior Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) participates in the project for the installation of photovoltaic fields and compatible agricultural production thanks to the development of semi-transparent organic modules.
“The synatral project will investigate the best way to divide a certain part of the land so that agricultural production can be maintained and electricity generated at the same time,” said the research lead researcher at the Barcelona Institute of Materials Science. (ICMAB-CSIC), Mariano Campoy-Quiles.
With conventional opaque technologies, the agrivoltaic application partially covers the crop and leaves gaps between the layers, as reported by the scientific institution.
For its part, the customization of semi-transparent organic photovoltaic panels for specific agrivoltaic applications is based on providing conditions to improve the growth of plants: moderate light intensity, light diffusion and composition (spectrum), homogeneous coverage of crops and mechanical protection of areas against aggressive elements such as hail, wind or rain.
“Organic materials allow a semi-transparent technology in which the plant receives part of the solar spectrum it needs to grow, but this is a small part. A large part of the solar spectrum is used to generate electricity,” the researcher has. he said.
Improve plant and energy productivity
However, he explained that Synatra’s main idea “is very different, since it aims to increase agriculture and increase the efficiency of land use, reducing the competition between industry and production plants.” “It will also help to accelerate the electrification and competitiveness of rural areas, and to delocalize and decarbonize power generation through sustainable energy production,” he added.
ICMAB scientists will investigate the better accumulation of agrivoltaic materials at both sites. On the part of scientists from the Institute of Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMCP), a joint center of the CSIC and the Polytechnic University of Valencia, they will analyze “the compatibility of these new complexes of semi-transparent materials with the growth of plants, as well as strategies for the selection of crops compatible with this technology”, according to Jaume Martínez-García, principal investigator of the project at IBMCP.
“This is a very demanding task that involves everything from basic science to understanding how different spectra affect the growth of plant models, to the manufacture of indicators and their integration into agricultural environments,” added Campoy-Quiles.
At the same time, the parties and at the same time study the growth patterns of plants illuminated by photovoltaics, “to identify the best materials and device geometries for each plant, as well as to understand the synergistic effects on plant growth.”
Synatra consortium Eurecat (Centre Tecnològic de Catalunya) through its function Typography and Embedded Systems units, is made up of six partner Institutes, in addition to four Research Institutes (Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona; Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology of Plants; Institute of Photonic Sciences, and Research and Agro-food Technology) . It also includes a technology center (Eurecat) and SME spins (VITSOLC).
It is an interdisciplinary and multisectoral consortium that gathers experience in various fields, such as agronomy, photovoltaics, materials science, photonics, printed electronics, plastic transformation processes, engineering design, environmental impact, prototyping, data management and business development.
The project was financed within the call of ‘Projects of strategic lines 2022’ of the State Program for the promotion of scientific-technical research and its transfer by the Ministry of Science and Innovation – State Research Agency.
