“By 2050, FAO establishes that the world’s agricultural land will be reduced by half, which will affect food production and food security,” said Jorge Retamal, a fruit researcher at INIA Quilamapu, when analyzing the increase in the surface area of photovoltaic parks on agricultural land in recent years. He stressed that the decrease in these lands is complex, so alternatives must be sought that make clean energy production coexist with national agricultural production.
The specialist participated, together with a group of representatives of the agriculture of Ñuble, in a technological tour through Germany, Switzerland and Spain, to understand the pros and cons of a new type of panels called “agrophotovoltaic”, which stand out for their dual purpose; that is, generation of electrical energy using solar radiation and development of fruit orchards located under the structures of the panels.
Retamal explained that the difference with traditional solar panels is that they block the passage of sunlight, which prevents the commercial development of crops, while agrophotovoltaic panels “consider a transparent structure that allows the passage of light and, therefore, the crops under them.” In fact, he indicated that at an experimental level there are already two private projects in the Ñuble Region (in Coihueco and in the facilities of the Adventist University of Chile), totaling an energy generation of regarding 50 thousand watts. The researcher said that there are still aspects to be solved, such as protocols in the installation of the structure, diversity and quality of the panels, productive physiological alterations of the fruit orchards, among others, which would allow avoiding errors in the implementation of future agrophotovoltaic panels.
Productive advantages and energy savings
One of the great advantages of this new technology is that, due to its height (4.5 metres), it acts as physical protection once morest damage caused by rain and hail in sensitive fruits such as cherries, considerably reducing the breaking of fruits that causes millions in losses each year.
Jorge Retamal stressed that the incorporation of these agrophotovoltaic panels would allow “increasing the efficiency of land use by more than 150%, since energy production is combined with fruit production,” which is particularly attractive in regions of the central south where more than two thousand hectares of solar parks have already been established “that are no longer available for agriculture.”
Elaborating on this aspect, he pointed out that Switzerland and Germany have already banned the implementation of new traditional photovoltaic parks on agricultural land, which is key to maintaining food sovereignty. He emphasized the importance of “having the necessary surface area to be able to be self-sufficient in food in the future” and added that these countries already have legislation on the matter and that they are “subsidizing agrophotovoltaic systems that generate land use efficiency of over 100%, which combines the energy criterion with that of food production.”
Savings and environmental benefits
As for the associated costs, the researcher said that a cherry producer can save 100% of his energy costs and, additionally, generate income from the sale of the energy he does not consume. He stressed that with nearly 2 thousand square meters of agrophotovoltaic panels, the necessary energy required by a 50-hectare cherry orchard with technological irrigation and a frost control system is produced.
But he also added that the impact of this new technology has an environmental component, since it replaces the use of plastics, usually used in greenhouse covers and roofs, which adds to the lifespan of this type of panels that “goes beyond 20 years, unlike plastic that must be replaced every two or three years.”
Meanwhile, the regional R&D deputy director of INIA Quilamapu, Paz Millas, mentioned that technologies like this also contribute to reducing the impact of radiation in summer, which has intensified in recent years, and which translates into increasingly frequent sunstrokes on fruit and wood. She also indicated that there are advantages in the health of fruit trees, as they are protected in winter from the splash of rain, which reduces the time that the leaves are wet. “Most diseases require splashing for dispersion and a film of water on the leaves to generate infection,” she said.
The technical tour through Europe was organized by the Adventist University of Chile, and was also attended by the president of the Ñuble Producers Association, Carlos González; the president of the productive development board of the Ñuble Region, Marcos Prado; the coordinator of Prodesal of the municipality of Coihueco, Isnelia Quintana; and the professor of UNACH, Víctor Pizarro. The trip was part of the project “Transfer and development of an agrophotovoltaic system in cherry and strawberry” promoted by the university.
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