Infrastructure builder and agricultural innovator Valmont Industries, through its subsidiary Valmont Solar, has announced that it has joined the SYMBIOSYST EU project to support innovation for agrivoltaic installations across Europe, stimulate the development of agrivoltaic projects and create European standards for agrivoltaic applications.
Over the past decade, many externalities have created an urgent need for clean energy independence in Europe, while limited land resources have limited clean energy deployment.
Challenges posed by land limitations for solar installations are meeting equally important needs in food production, creating the opportunity to leverage the promise of technology for real-world solutions.
— said Matteo Demofonti, Business Line Manager for Valmont Solar Europe.
As the name suggests, agrivoltaics is a combined approach that maximizes land use by jointly growing specialist food crops under and around solar installations, creating a symbiotic relationship that allows the plants to benefit from shade or panel bases as growing support for, for example, vines.
The SYMBIOSYST EU project is all about adaptation standardized and cost-effective solutions for specific needs of different crops in different climates and planting conditions, involving custom-designed solar PV modules, mounting structures, and operation and maintenance practices.
Valmont Solar specializes in research and production of tracking systems for solar panels. His flagship Convert technology will be an essential part of the SYMBIOSYST EU project. The company’s unique experience will be applied in developing, designing and implementing three specific steel mono-axial tracker structures and tilting solar modules, as well as the monitoring control system for three different open agrivoltaic scenarios related to the production of vegetables and fruit trees.
These agrivoltaic structures are intended to maintain the continuity of agricultural activities under the solar systems, which are equipped with the latest Convert Control System from Valmont Solar. The system enables continuous monitoring of all agricultural and tracker parameters to support the production optimization process.
Meanwhile, Valmont Solar will contribute the know-how of its Convert technology to explore the development of innovative solutions for climate- and crop-based reliability and performance of agrivoltaic systems, focusing on the analysis of the whole system from a global perspective.