HYDROGEN AND PHOTOVOLTAIC ELECTRIFICATION ON FARM (HyPErFarm)

The sustainable development goals of the UN and climate targets of the EU require that all economic sectors sharply reduce fossil-based use. However, the agricultural sector has the potential to not only greatly defossilize, but even produce energy – and that not to the detriment of, but alongside with food production. Photovoltaic (PV) has become dramatically more competitive relative to other renewable energy sources, and is now as competitive as wind power. Currently, PV-parks are installed on large land areas, leading to loss of land for cultivating crops. The ideal solution is provided by combined agro-voltaic systems with dual land use for crop production and simultaneous power production. HyPErFarm joins multiple types of actors with the objective to optimize viable agrivoltaic business models as well as test the marketability of the products, via inclusion of new innovative PV technologies (PV H2-production, bifacial PV-panels), radically new crop production systems, stakeholder innovation workshops, and citizen-consumer acceptance, public perception analysis and farmer adoption studies. HyPErFarm also develops and demonstrates new ways of utilizing and distributing the energy produced on-farm via heat pumps, e-robots, hydrogen production, storage and use, and e-driven pyrolysis of biomass side-streams that captures carbon while also improving soil quality. The project’s impact is that agrivoltaic systems are moved upwards to TRL7-8, and attractive new business models are accessible for farmers. HyPErFarm thus supports a game-changing radical innovation and contributes to the building of a low fossil-carbon, climate-resilient future EU farming that can also supply local communities with power and hydrogen. HyPErFarm partners have the ability to adopt and further develop the new farming practices, to provide the new technologies required, and to adopt new APV-business models that will allow continued food production on land used for power production.