An innovative project has been born aimed at application of photovoltaic energy to vineyards. The González Byass wineries, the sustainable innovation startup, ESGeo Spain, belonging to Techedge Group and the system manufacturing company for photovoltaic plants PVH have created winesolar. The objective is to strengthen the coexistence of solar generation plants, with activities related to agriculture, and in this specific case, with the world of wine and vineyards.
Project awarded by Iberdrola
The objective of ESGeo with Winesolar is to develop projects and propose sustainable, low-cost and environmentally friendly solutions, and this is precisely the purpose of the Start-up Challenge initiative launched in May 2021 by Iberdrola, through its program international Perseo, which seeks to combine, in a sustainable way, the deployment of photovoltaic parks and activities of the primary sector in rural areas and which has recognized Winesolar as one of the four winning projects in its latest edition.
Innovation meets sustainability in Winesolar, the project resulting from the work and experience of González Byass, ESGeo and PHV, allowing the vineyard to be combined in a sustainable way with photovoltaic production, so as to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of facilitiesthe land use and the defense of biodiversity, which is known as agrivoltaic energy.
With the union of the companies that have collaborated in Winesolar, synergies will be created for the winery, by generating renewable energy, and for the vineyard, where the plates, carefully integrated into the landscape, will create shade and an ideal microclimate against stress , both thermal and hydric that the vines can suffer, favoring their resilience to climate change.
Artificial Intelligence in the vineyards
But Winesolar goes beyond the sustainable part and is the incorporation of technology, and specifically Artificial Intelligence to improve the performance of the photovoltaic installation. To do this, artificial intelligence models will be designed and trained that, based on the data from the sensors installed in the field and those associated with the photovoltaic installation, will be able to make predictions and indicate the optimal positioning of the trackers. at any time, depending on weather conditions and other underlying factors.
In this way, answers to the physiological needs of vineyardsand photovoltaic production will be optimized, which will help improve the efficiency and competitiveness of facilities and crops, improving their production and quality, as well as the use of land and the use of renewable energies to power the entire installation and generate surplus.
With the materialization of this project, which over almost 18 months will cover two agricultural campaigns, González Byass, together with ESGeo and PHV, will work together to combat climate change in two ways: by making the vineyards resistant to climatic conditions , fixers in terms of CO2 emissions and respectful of the natural environment, and generating clean energy with the photovoltaic installation. Winesolar, in addition to promoting the energy transition and the fight against climate change, will be launched in areas facing demographic challenges.
Finally, it should be noted that Iberdrola will provide ESGeo, PVH and González Byass with technical and financial support to test their solution, giving access to the necessary resources to validate it (equipment, equipment, infrastructure, high-tech sites and joint work areas) in a real environment.
