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Insolight, an agrivoltaic specialist, has inaugurated a 3,000 sqm greenhouse project for a strawberry farm in France. The facility combines solar panels, shade screens, and rainwater harvesting.
Swiss company Insolight has announced the construction of a 3,000 square meter agrivoltaic greenhouse in the commune of Sames in southwestern Frances Basque country. With an installed capacity of 190 kW, the installation is expected to produce some 260 MWh of energy per year, which equals the consumption of around 50 households.
The electricity will be self-consumed, with the surplus to be resold to French utility company EDF, in accordance with the countrys S21 photovoltaic decree.
The site consists of a greenhouse covered with semi-transparent solar panels and removable shading screens to adapt the shading. The owners of the Etchélécu Farm hope to increase their strawberry production by nearly 15%.
The farmers faced a very low harvest in 2018 due to climatic hazards. To protect their crops, they built a new greenhouse equipped with shade panels, a rainwater recovery system, and solar panels.
The greenhouse holds about 15,000 strawberry plants in trough planters about 1 meter from the ground. Their harvest supplies restaurants on the Basque coast.
Insolights agrivoltaic greenhouse model is already in use in Switzerland at the Agroscope agricultural research center in Conthey. Since 2022, they have tested the solar panels on a raspberry plantation. They will evaluate the results from 2026, focusing on the effects of dynamic light conditions on plant development. |
