Solar parks proliferate in Europe and boost development of renewables, but the issue of land use is often raised.A new trend is to produce energy and cultivate crops at the same time, in other words use agrivoltaic systems.
One example is the Torreilles solar park, in the South West of France. The plant’s total power capacity is 9.6MWand stretches for 43 hectares along the so-called “Route du soleil”, near Perpignan. It can produce 14,000,000kWh per year, enough to supply 5,200 families or allow 1,400 electric cars to travel around the world, saving1,100 tons of CO2.The system consists of 96 greenhouses equipped with solar panels. It hosts an “organic” poultry farm, which isfree-range, with the animals fed on grains grown on site. Fruit plants are also grown, with a section for exoticspecies.
The Torreilles park is innovative not only for its structure, but also for its financing system linked to a Europeancross-border campaign to crowdfund renewables. Platforms Lumo, based in France, and Oneplanetcrowd, in theNetherlands, co-financed the project collecting 800 thousand euros in two rounds, coming from 350 Frenchinvestors, and 130 Dutch investors.en energy.
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