Recording of Thursday, June 20, 2024 | The smarter E Europe | Exhibition Program | Language: English | Duration: 13:08 .

BayWa's Stephan Schindele Advocates for Integrating Cow Husbandry in Photovoltaic Projects to Boost Rural Sustainability and Energy Transition Efforts

Stephan Schindele, head of product management at BayWa Renewables, discussed the innovative CowPV project aimed at strengthening rural areas through cow husbandry integrated with photovoltaic (PV) projects. He emphasized that CowPV is a promising opportunity rather than a challenge due to its comparable levelized cost of electricity to ground-mounted PV systems and numerous environmental benefits such as natural fertilization from cows, increased biodiversity, improved soil quality, and higher acceptance in the farming sector. This synergy reduces land use competition and fosters collaboration between renewable energy projects and agricultural communities. Schindel highlighted BayWa's commitment to renewables with over 5,000 employees working on sustainable energy solutions within their 24,000-strong workforce. The company actively integrates agricultural expertise into its PV projects to ensure practical implementation. He further explained ACRI-PV (Agricultural Photovoltaics), which includes various forms of agricultural activities like beekeeping or sheep grazing alongside solar panels. Unlike traditional ground-mounted PV systems without any farming component, ACRI-PV incorporates legal definitions involving active agriculture. BayWa has successfully implemented around 1.5 gigawatts of ACRI-PV globally and continues exploring innovative applications such as crop PV in Austria while promoting mutual growth for both renewable energy sectors and rural communities.

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Talk of session: Agricultural PV: Combining Photovoltaics and Agriculture

Agricultural PV is on the rise - in many European countries, this application, which combines agriculture and PV on the same piece of land, is on the verge of a market breakthrough. The beneficial effects of PV systems on many types of crops as well as dual land use and protecting agricultural activity by avoiding competition for land are some clear advantages. In this session, pioneering agricultural PV companies will present their projects and best practices, demonstrate the profitability of agricultural PV and the benefits of this combination for agriculture and power generation.

Further Talks of this session:

Economic Attractiveness of Agri-PV in Several Use Cases

To Talk

Module Level Power Electronics for Improving Agri-PV Economics

To Talk

GridParity AG Projects in AgriPV: Generating Solar Power and Leveraging Synergies

To Talk

Growing Green: Exploring the Benefits of Solar Integration in Farming

To Talk