EWS Sonnenfeld Bruck an der Leitha (Lower Austria)

Triple use for agriculture, energy generation and research

The 5 ha agrivoltaic research and demonstration plant is a cooperation project between Energiepark Bruck/Leitha GmbH and EWS Consulting GmbH.

As a particularly innovative "model and lighthouse project for photovoltaics", the EWS Sonnenfeld - Bruck an der Leitha was awarded the contract by the expert jury of the Climate and Energy Fund in August 2021. After two years of product development, the project was launched in October 2021.

Together with Energiepark Bruck and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences as partners, the pilot plant will conduct research over the coming years into which crops and forms of cultivation are best suited to simultaneous PV production.

Although the technical PV components have already been tried and tested over many years, there are still some unanswered questions when it comes to combining them with agricultural use. Among other things, various technical designs of PV systems will also be used.

The project serves research and demonstration purposes for the market launch of agri-PV systems on arable and grassland.

The solar field and the two reference areas will be equipped with various sensors and measuring instruments to analyse the influence of various parameters, such as precipitation, water availability, soil moisture, partial shading intensity, photosynthetic radiation, temperature, wind speed, etc., on agricultural management and the quality of the soil,

Special features

• In particular, this system is intended to test and optimise the current state of development of the EWS Sonnenfeld® in practice for the agricultural use of different crops and types of cultivation.
• In order to be able to investigate the effects on electricity yields and agricultural yields, the mobile rows of module tables will be installed with different centre distances: 8, 11 and 14 m centre distances (research zones 2-4).
• To ensure that the effects on biodiversity and the effects on agricultural yields can be investigated accordingly, two reference areas will also be considered: A fallow land (research zone 7) and an area that is farmed but on which no module tables are erected (research zone 6).
• And in order to be able to compare the electricity yields of the mobile module tables with the electricity yields of permanently installed systems, a fixed south-facing orientation (research zone 5) as well as fixed east-west double tables (research zone 8) and fixed south-east orientation (research zone 1) are also erected at the project site.
• In addition, higher and lower yields of bifacial and monofacial modules will be investigated with different flower strip compositions and crops.

Eight research zones at the EWS Sonnenfeld Bruck/Leitha

Research area: 5.5 ha, divided into 8 sections

    1 - south-east orientation rigid inclination 20°
    2 - sun field with 6 m cultivation width
    3 - Sun field with 12 m cultivation width
    4 - Sun field with 9 m cultivation width
    5 - South-facing, rigid inclination 20°
    6 - Undeveloped reference area with agricultural cultivation
    7 - Fallow land reference area
    8 - East-west facing, rigid inclination 16°