Summary
- Profile Type
- Technology offer
- POD Reference
- TOGR20230803004
- Term of Validity
- 9 August 2023 - 8 August 2025
- Company's Country
- Greece
- Type of partnership
- Commercial agreement with technical assistance
- Targeted Countries
- All countries
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General information
- Short Summary
- The Greek SME has developed a technology that reduces the energy burden required by greenhouses, as energy accounts for about 28% of operating expenses. This state-of-the-art technology provides farmers with the means to be energy independent. It provides clean energy which can be self-consumed or sold to the grid, and prevents CO2 emissions in agriculture. This partnership seeks companies with external workforce for a commercial agreement with technical assistance.
- Full Description
-
The Greek innovative SME provides a practical approach for dual use land either in greenhouse or open field horticulture through a transparent solar panel, which can be used for roofs and walls of glass greenhouses and for crop protection canopies (Agri-PVs). With over 80% visible spectrum transparency and with over 22% power conversion efficiency, the electricity generated by the glass can be used to offset the energy requirements of agriculture operations. The transparency of the panels can be adjusted for optimum plant growth depending on location and crop.
In the simplest configuration, the electricity output from this innovative greenhouse solar panel is connected to the main electricity line after the meter. If the amount of electricity generated surpassed the amount being consumed, the electricity meter runs backwards.
A greenhouse requires large areas of land and significant amounts of energy to be productive. This technology allows the under glass to be of dual use for cultivation of crops as well as solar electricity generation.
No one can deny that greenhouse cultivation can be a significant asset to increasing food production worldwide in order to feed the world’s growing population. Greenhouses produce more food with up to 90% less water than traditional farming techniques and are an important technology for managing the Food-Water-Energy balance, so critical in today’s world.
One downside of this approach is that in many areas, the electricity used to operate the greenhouses is generated from fossil fuels. As the acreage under glass increases, the demand for electricity increases, which results in a heavy environmental cost for the increase in food production.
This innovation changes this model by allowing the greenhouse to become self-sufficient in terms of energy usage. Coupled with energy storage technologies such as batteries, water displacement or thermal storage, the greenhouse can store the excess power produced during the day to be used at night or on cloudy days. The greenhouse can also be connected to the grid and use net-metering to avoid the cost of storage and offset all electricity costs needed for its operation.
It is clear that climate change is creating weather extremes that can have devastating effects on crops. Agri-PVs can reduce damage caused by frost, hail, excessive heat and birds while collecting rainwater for optimized irrigation. Utilizing these greenhouse solar panels, Agri-PVs can be constructed in a contiguous manner, maximizing protection while providing uniform diffuse illumination to the entire area. The energy generated can be sold to the power utility or used to replace traditional fossil fuel equipment with clean electric ones.
The innovative Greek SME's technology is specifically designed for horticulture applications. Care was taken to optimize the transparency of the glass in the wavelengths that are critical to photosynthesis. The Greek SME has developed a Luminescent Solar Collector coating, which absorbs light in the ultraviolet spectrum and re-emits this energy as red light in the 600-650nm range. This provides an increase in the primary photosynthetic region when compared to standard greenhouse glass. At the same time, these greenhouse solar panels are uniform in their transmission of all other wavelengths in the visible light spectrum.
Furthermore, the Greek SME developed of a hydrophobic antireflective (AR) coating aiming at increasing the transparency of the glass while removing rain water fast and preventing glass soiling.
Due to this innovative solution, the European Innovation Council (EIC Fund) has invested in participating in the Greek SME's shareholder structure and the realization of this investment will be used to create the first production line of transparent solar glass for agricultural applications worldwide. - Advantages and Innovations
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This technology reduces the energy burden required by greenhouses, as energy accounts for about 28% of operating expenses. Now, growers are able to reduce this energy cost close to zero, and even benefit from additional revenue by selling excess produced energy to the grid that exceeds the cost of the energy expended. If a net metering method is chosen for the connection of the solar system to the grid, the energy cost for the farmer is dramatically reduced. Thereby this technology is a tool in bridging the gap of buying energy from the grid, as well as minimizing the exposure to market fluctuations which usually has severe impact on small farm owners.
Contrary to other photovoltaics (PV) solutions, this technology is up to >80% transparent, able to generate clean energy while allowing sufficient light to pass through it, thus not hindering photosynthesis, making it ideal for greenhouse and other agricultural applications. This high level of transparency is achieved due to the aforementioned unique combination of a proprietary spectrum-shifting nanomaterial coating that concentrates the visible light in the region of photosynthesis by selective UV utilization, making these light frequencies finally useful for both plants and solar cells. Specifically, UV light is absorbed by the coating and re-emitted in the red region of visible light. This allows for more efficient sensitization of solar cells and concentrated light in Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) for the plants.
Competition offers fixed size, fixed transparency products. In comparison, this innovative greenhouse solar panel offers:
• Any glass size required by the user.
• Glass transparency that matches the crop light requirements.
• Shift of UV light to visible light for positive effect on crop growth.
• Highest income from energy sales with no adverse effect on crop yield.
• Reduced food costs, CO2 footprint/kgr. - Technical Specification or Expertise Sought
- The Greek SME has developed, installed and implemented a Quality Management System (QMS) in accordance with the requirements of ELOT EN ISO 9001: 2015 and takes accountability for the effectiveness and the continuous improvement of the QMS.
- Stage of Development
- Already on the market
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
- Goal 13: Climate Action
- Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
- Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
- IPR status
- IPR granted
- IPR notes
- Patents: NL 2027662, CN103943367B, CN105159005B, CN108681173B, NL2010468C2, NL 2027661
Partner Sought
- Expected Role of a Partner
-
• Companies with PV installation and sales business representing/ selling this technology/ product.
• Companies working on greenhouse and Agri-PV applications.
• Greenhouse and Agri-PV end-users.
• Companies, universities working on nanomaterial development for energy applications. - Type and Size of Partner
- SME 11-49
- SME 50 - 249
- SME <=10
- Big company
- University
- R&D Institution
- Type of partnership
- Commercial agreement with technical assistance
Dissemination
- Technology keywords
- 04005004 - Photovoltaics
- 04008003 - Micro- and Nanotechnology related to energy
- 04005005 - Solar/Thermal energy
- Market keywords
- 06008 - Energy Storage
- 06003010 - Distributed power and grid connection
- 06003002 - Photovoltaics
- Sector Groups Involved
- Electronics
- Renewable Energy
- Targeted countries
- All countries