Iberdrola is looking to collaborate with your innovative Agrivoltaics business! Collaborate to scale your solutions globally and across Iberdrola’s extensive electricity networks.
Sponsoring Agency: Iberdrola
Type of Fund: Challenges, Competitions or Prizes
Deadline Available: Available
Deadline Date (mm/dd/yyyy): 06/11/2021
Size of the Fund: Not Available
Iberdrola is looking to collaborate with your innovative Agrivoltaics business! Collaborate to scale your solutions globally and across Iberdrola’s extensive electricity networks.
Iberdrola is seeking low-cost and environmentally-friendly solutions to combine the roll-out of photovoltaic plants and certain primary sector activities in rural areas in a sustainable way.
Iberdrola’s risk capital vehicle, Perseo, is launching this Challenge to identify competitive and innovative solutions that allow combining solar photovoltaic plants with activities related to agriculture, horticulture, livestock, fish-farming or bee-keeping in such a way that they improve the land use.
Through this new Challenge, the team of specialists from Iberdrola’s Renewables division is seeking innovative solutions that allow primary sector activities and solar photovoltaic facilities to complement each other and create synergies on the same land, enabling Iberdrola to promote the local economy, especially in those regions with demographic challenges posed by progressive depopulation, whilst continuing to fight climate change and support the energy transition.
Focus Areas
Iberdrola is looking for solutions in 4 main focus areas. In these four areas, your solution can include:
• Solutions that contribute towards improving or optimizing the productivity of the land, minimizing the potential penalty for electricity production.
• Solutions that lead to better water management, temperature optimization, heat and refrigeration supply for facilities and processes, etc.
• Solutions offering competitive investment costs compared to conventional photovoltaic solutions.
• Solutions focusing on minimizing the operating and maintenance costs of photovoltaic plants as well as the costs for the complementary land use.
• Remotely operated solutions and ones that allow for totally autonomous management.
Additionally, your solution must explore the combination of solar photovoltaic generation with one of the following complementary land uses:
• Agriculture / Horticulture
o Technological proposals to combine different crops with the production of photovoltaic energy. The challenge is open to all type(s) of crops as long as it is clearly indicated in the proposal for which type of crop the proposed technology is best suited.
• Livestock
o Technological proposals to combine different livestock-rearing activities with the production of photovoltaic energy. The challenge is open to all types of livestock rearing provided that the proposal clearly indicates for which type(s) of livestock rearing the proposed technology is best suited.
• Fish Farming
o Technological proposals to integrate the production of photovoltaic energy into fish farming.
• Bee-keeping / Pollination
o Technological proposals to integrate the production of photovoltaic energy into bee-keeping/pollination.
The Prize
All proposals will be analyzed by specialists from Iberdrola’s Renewables Business Unit. The prize will consist of the Challenge winner signing a collaboration and proof of concept (PoC) agreement with PERSEO and/or other relevant group companies of Iberdrola.
Furthermore, Iberdrola will:
• Assume the costs of the collaboration and the PoC
• Give you the necessary technical support to test your solution by providing access to equipment, appliances, infrastructure, high technology sites, and joint work areas
• Provide you with a real environment and real data to test your solution
Further, Iberdrola may offer you the opportunity to scale up your agrivoltaics solution into other Iberdrola networks by means of commercial agreements if the PoC is successful.
In addition, Perseo may consider investing in the winning solution.
The Evaluation Process
The evaluation of your proposal will take into account:
• Investment and operating costs
• The maturity of the proposals and adaptability to the design of PV plants
• The simplicity of installation for new and existing facilities
• The diversity of crops that could be planted
• Maximization of electricity generation
• Minimal loss of cultivable land and impact on the environment
• The potential positive impact on agricultural or livestock production
• Sustainability of the concept: improvements in biodiversity and carbon capture
• Water management system to allow for savings
• Degree of computerization of the proposal to optimize its efficiency
More information at: https://connect.startus.cc/iberdrola-startup-challenge-agro-voltaics/
Eligible Countries:
All Countries
