Eurecat is part of the Tecsol-Frut consortium (Solar Technology for Fruit), focused on agrivoltaic technology and aimed at increasing the yield and sustainability of fruit crops in the face of climate change, as detailed by the technological center in a statement released this Monday.
The center has pointed out that climate change is altering the natural production cycles, causing earlier blooming and greater exposure of plantations to extreme episodes such as heat waves or periods of drought. These factors directly impact the profitability of agricultural operations and the final quality of the fruit.
The central purpose of the consortium is to conceive, implement, and verify an agrivoltaic system that employs rigid and adjustable photovoltaic technology, with control of the tilt angle of the solar panels, which will be applied in two fruit crop farms located in different autonomous communities.
This agrivoltaic technology makes it possible to reconcile agricultural production with the generation of renewable electric energy, simultaneously increasing agronomic yield, energy efficiency, and the sustainable use of available resources.
At the same time, the consortium will promote the development of a digital simulation and planning tool that allows analyzing various scenarios, jointly optimizing agricultural and energy production, and supporting data-driven decision-making. Additionally, systems aimed at feeding AI models to build a digital model will be integrated.
Cooperation and European funding
The initiative is coordinated by the Efficient Energy Cluster of Catalonia (CEEC), has funding from the European Union (EU) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and is made up of a total of five entities.
In addition to Eurecat, the project includes the Málaga cooperative for the production and marketing of avocado and mango TROPS, the Catalan sweet fruit cooperative Fruits de Ponent, the Basque company Powerfultree, specialized in engineering, design, and development of hardware solutions for agrivoltaic applications, and the CEEC itself.