The French energy business stated its 100 kW agrivoltaic center connected to cow farming in France’s Puy-de-Dôme area has actually not customized meadow operating and animal habits.
October 7, 2024 Gwénaëlle Deboutte
From pv publication France
Engie Green, a system of French energy giant Engie, has actually been running a vertical agrivoltaic demonstrator for the previous 2 years on the website of the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRAE) in Laqueuille, Puy-de-Dôme department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes area in the center of France.
The option of this photovoltaic innovation was made since of its production profile, with the solar energy plant producing over a prolonged duration from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. due to the vertical release of the panels.
The very first outcomes have actually revealed that by 2024, the energy produced by the 100 kW pilot, called Camélia, had actually gone beyond the production of a ground-based plant of the exact same power by 30%.
In addition Engie likewise revealed agronomic information revealing that the plant has actually entered its 2nd year of agronomic tracking and its very first year of solar power production.
Preliminary observations reveal that the existence of photovoltaic panels customizes the microclimate of the meadow. Over a number of months, the scientists determined a halving of wind speed with no significant modification in wind instructions. Throughout a day, the solar setups momentarily customize the light and thermal conditions on either side of the panels. “However, considering that all the microclimatic information has actually not yet been examined, we will need to wait another cycle to draw appropriate conclusions,” the business discussed.
The various sizes of inter-rows
Image: INRAE
Worrying the production of plant biomass, if this is not customized by the range to the panels or the east-west orientation, the meadow of the 18-meter inter-row is more efficient than that of the 12-meter inter-row. A number of descriptions are advanced by INRAE: the intrinsic spatial irregularity of the plot, the existence of a little bit more yard, and possibly a bit more light in 18 meters than in 12 meters.
All the animals present on the Camélia plot were geared up with sensing units to determine activities such as consumption, rumination, rest, and standing, as well as their position in the shade or light and their spatial position by means of GPS. Throughout the very first grazing cycle in May, in damp and cool conditions, the researchers observed that the animals invested about 1/3 of their time in the inter-rows of the panels and 2/3 of their time around the panels.
In warmer and a little drier conditions, throughout the 2nd grazing cycle in June-July, the animals invested a little bit more time in the shade of the trees found on the plot. In addition, the existence of the panels does not appear to customize their activity since the activity profiles resembled those on the Camélia plot and another plot utilized throughout the inter-grazing. As soon as once again,
