Can raspberries grow under solar panels?

What may have been a crazy idea a few years ago, it turns into a project in the Netherlands.

A Dutch farm saw the deployment of 10,250 solar panels across 3.2 hectares of raspberry crops in a bid to create a more sustainable environment for their growth and provide renewable energy for the area.

The development follows the success of a pilot project last year, which showed that the climate under the panels can be more stable than under conventional plastic arches.

The panels created a more favourable lower temperature and protected the crops in a better way from the unpredictable weather conditions.

The project is also expected to generate enough clean energy to power close to 1,250 households.

The renewable energy developer, service provider and distributor, BayWa r.e built the 2.7MWp agrophotovoltaics (AgriPV) project to investigate how solar panels can be combined with a variety of different berry crops.

Benedikt Ortmann, Global Director of Solar Projects at BayWa r.e., commented: “AgriPV can bring a social, environmental, and economic benefit to farmers. No land-use conflict, better landscape integration if foil systems are replaced, less waste, less labour and investment cost.”

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