Agri-PV in scientific discourse and on the basis of best practice examples. Including the EWS Sonnenfeld®

Until now, there have been no large-scale studies on APV in Austria, which is why a project at BOKU, led by Alexander Bauer, has taken on the task of assessing the potential of APV in Austria for the first time. "APV combines many different disciplines, so it was important for us to develop an assessment that is as holistic as possible. Therefore, techno-economic, ecological and social aspects were considered in an integrated modelling framework in the project," says the researcher. The project evaluated elevated APV systems (S-APV) without tracking, elevated systems with tracking and vertical bifacial systems (VB-APV).

To conclude the project, the BOKU Energy Cluster invited participants to the event "Agriphotovoltaics in agriculture - opportunity for agriculture and energy transition" on 21 March 2023, at which the EWS Sonnenfeld® was also discussed. The event started with short keynote speeches from the research community as follows:

• Gernot Stöglehner from the Institute for Spatial Planning, Environmental Planning and Land Use Management at the Boku provided an introductory overview of the situation of agriculture and PV from a spatial planning perspective.
• Christian Mikovits from the Institute for Sustainable Economic Development at BOKU gave a lecture on electrical energy potentials in consideration of agricultural production.
• Theresa Krexner from the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at BOKU explained the topic of life cycle assessment of agri-photovoltaic systems in Austria.
• Finally, Thomas Schauppenlehner from the Institute for Landscape Development and Recreation and Nature Conservation Planning at BOKU showed possibilities and experiences from visualisations and joint plans.

In the panel discussion that followed, practical experiences were exchanged. Participants were Max Trommsdorf (Fraunhofer ISE), Joachim Payr (EWS Sonnenfeld), Kasimir Nemestothy (Austrian Chamber of Agriculture), Mathias Janko (BML) and Andreas Tribsch (Biodiversity Council).

The event could be watched via livestream and is available as a video.

Boku as guest at EWS Sonnenfeld Bruck an der Leitha

"The continuous exchange about new findings and developments in Agri-PV helps us to get an overview of the market, to perceive developments and to get a broad view of various Agri-PV projects. We were very pleased that high-ranking researchers were guests at the EWS Sonnenfeld Bruck an der Leitha research and pilot plant," said Joachim Payr from EWS, who was happy to share his enthusiasm during the site visit.