At present Europe represents 20% of the global plastic GH area, which means more than 200,000 hectares (Has), most of them in the Mediterranean basin where Spain and Italy stand out over other countries and Morocco and Turkey are countries with a higher expansion. Greenhouses all over Europe are facing a challenge on the reduction of their energy requirements costs which represents the third highest cost, representing 10-30% of total operational costs. Countries with high greenhouse coverage, both for food or ornamental vegetables are the envisioned target market.
SUN4GREEN is born from the need of greenhouse farmers to reduce their energy costs while they also maintain or increase their crops productivity. SUN4GREEN aims to deliver a solution to those farmers thanks to a new smart design which allows a dual profitable photovoltaic and crop harvesting. This is achieved through a revolutionary solution which combines in a greenhouse (GH) structure a patented assembly system of photovoltaic (PV) panels with optical collectors (boosters), which enables seasonal control of solar energy for crop development and PV power generation by preventing in summer excess light from reaching crops and turning it into electricity, while in winter light is able to reach crops without any problem.
Two partners were involved within Phase 1 works, SUNBOOST Ltd, which has a deep knowledge on add-on booster development for conventional ground and rooftop photo-voltaic systems and RUFEPA TECNOAGRO S.L. a 25-years-experience company in the horticultural sector which provides the partnership with expert engineering and hands-on capabilities that will enable integrating the developed boosters’ technology with existing GH technologies to put it at the service of customers.
