An innovative Agrivoltaics technology that uses CO2 enrichment
The REGACE project is dedicated to developing an innovative Agrivoltaics technology that uses CO2 enrichment to sustainably increase greenhouses yields and improve electricity production.
Based upon the patented responsive tracking system, developed by REGACE partner TriSolar, the project creates systems that enable the dual use of land and infrastructure leading to reduced construction and maintenance costs, duration of execution, and the reduction of CO2 emissions caused by conventional Agrivoltaic installations.
REGACE will also have a significant positive effect on ecological environmental sustainability and reduced ecological footprint. The project’s outputs will contribute to the diversification of the energy producing market, enabling small holding greenhouse owners to play a significant part in the market.
Our cost effective agrivoltaic solution, enables us to offer tools to transform traditional food growing areas into full participants in the renewable circular energy economy.
Instead of big, anonymous external firms creating PV deserts in rural areas, each greenhouse owner can become a stakeholder selling clean energy. This creates new value chains of food growers who become an important part of the energy economy, creating solar energy jobs in farm economy regions.
The project tests the system in operational research and farming environments in six locations with different greenhouse types and crops.
The REGACE consortium is comprised of 12 research institutes and commercial organizations from five different countries. The project has received €5.5 million grant from the European Union through the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation funding programme.
Mission
REGACE aims to make Agrivoltaics a major contributor to the EU clean energy portfolio. We wish to put our highly innovative Agrivoltaics technology into use to sustainably increase greenhouse yields and improve electricity production contributing to stabilizing agricultural produce prices and improving energy and food security.
REGACE wishes to lead to a significant positive effect on ecological environmental sustainability and a reduced ecological footprint.
By installing our system on land and infrastructure, which is already in use, we wish to reduce construction and maintenance costs, duration of execution, and the reduction of CO2 emissions.
Partners
The REGACE consortium is comprised of 12 research institutes and commercial organizations from Germany, Austria, Greece, Italy, Belgium and Israel.
The Al-Zahrawi Society was founded in 1993 to explore the interplay between modernization and authenticity or the ways in which the Islamic heritage can enhance the interaction with the modern world.
The founders were academics and researchers who sought different ways to encourage and promote research and development in the Arab community in Israel. To this end they set up the Triangle Research and Development Centre (TRDC) in 2000 as a way to make real scientific research take place in the village. The TRDC won recognition as a regional research centre under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, with researchers working on a broad range of projects from solar energy to chemistry, computer science, sociology and others in cooperation with research institutions in Israel, Europe and the US.
The TRDC has a social mission that goes beyond research and it is a principal actor in programmes to improve the quality of science education in the region. Another mission is to encourage entrepreneurial innovation and so far, three start up companies have been established based on TRDC research, with several more in development.
By acting in research, education and innovation the Society feels that it is best enacting the legacy of Abu al-Qassem al-Zahrawi, one of the greatest Arab physicians and scientists in the Middle Ages who combined research with the invention of innovative medical instruments whose designs were used in Europe for hundreds of years.
TriSolar is the start-up company that developed the technology used in the REGACE project an innovative, cost-effective system that dual use of land without changing the landscape. The system is designed to provide higher year-round yields with more renewable energy per hectare and a very low environmental footprint.
The Fattoria Solidale del Circeo is committed to the employment of disabled and disadvantaged people, producing a marked improvement in their quality of life. It is recognised regionally and nationally and each year trains people with mental and cognitive disabilities to work. They achieve excellent results through agricultural practice as this fosters the acquisition of a great sense of responsibility and the awareness of becoming indispensable for something useful and real.
Our project enables these people to develop a working ability and thus achieve psychological and income autonomy, a prerequisite for social integration. It also offers them the possibility of living most of the day in contact with nature, with all the psychophysical benefits this brings. In this context, disabled people are able to make the most of their abilities, feeling that they are protagonists in the production process. In a sector where respect for natural times is fundamental, the slower times of the disabled are part of normality and are no longer perceived as a handicap.
The protagonists of our project, supported by educators and psychologists, have acquired skills in tillage, animal husbandry and product processing. The results obtained are excellent, as demonstrated by the high quality of the organic products cultivated. The marketing of the products serves to support the project, which is based on the concept of solidarity and not welfarism.
University of Rome Tor Vergata was established in 1982 and was designed on the model of Anglo-Saxon campuses. The campus stretches on 600 hectares and hosts important research institutions, such as National Research Council – CNR and the Italian Space Agency – ASI.
The mission of the University of Rome Tor Vergata is to contribute to people’s education and training, to scientific research and to the technological, organisational and social innovation needed to achieve a truly sustainable development in Italy, Europe and worldwide pursuant to the Sustainable Development Goals.
The University of Thessaly, which was founded in 1984, is a dynamically developing higher education institute. It is administratively based in Volos and has developed in the whole region of Thessaly and Central Greece in Volos, Larissa, Lamia, Karditsa and Trikala.
The UTH’s mission is to promote knowledge through instruction and research and to contribute to the cultural and economic development on a regional, national and international level.
The University is deeply invested in high-quality scientific research, considering it a necessary presupposition for the production and transmission of new knowledge: it encourages scientific distinction of its research potential in all fields, it rewards high individual and collective achievement, and it creates a conducive climate for research and teaching innovation.
Humboldt-Universität was founded in 1809 as the Alma Mater Berolinsis and has been one of Germany’s eleven universities of excellence since 2012. At nine faculties, over 40,000 students can choose from 170 degree courses. The Albrecht Daniel Thaer Institute for Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences is part of the Faculty of Life Sciences. Central research areas are securing the world’s food supply, ensuring ecologically and economically sustainable use of resources and preserving the natural environment. The following focal points are emphasized:
– Structural change in the agricultural sector – analysis and shaping of economic, political and institutional change processes with a focus on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
- Structural change in the agricultural sector analysis and shaping of economic, political and institutional change processes with a focus on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
- Quality assurance in agricultural and horticultural production systems in the service of food safety and consumer protection.
- Urban and peri-urban agriculture and horticulture with emphasis on the diversity of nature-related and resource-based as well as economic and social urban-rural relations.
Tel Aviv University (TAU) is the largest research and teaching institution in Israel, offering diversified range of study and research fields. Located at the heart of Israel’s economic, technological and cultural centre, TAU is proud of its liberal and pluralistic spirit. The vision of the University is to become a world-leading research university and the top one in Israel.
TAU’s mission is to promote research of the highest level and to equip tens of thousands of students annually with academic knowledge and critical thinking skills. The University also aims to influence society in Israel and globally in spheres including industry, culture and education.
The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) is one of the best Life Sciences universities in Europe, distinguished by its holistic approach to research and teaching. Our scientists, students and graduates work on solutions for burning social issues and for a sustainable future.
Today’s University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences began its success story in 1872 as a small agricultural university under the name “k. k. Hochschule für Bodencultur”. Today, the BOKU locations Türkenschanze, Muthgasse and Tulln offer the 15 departments and 11,000 students optimal conditions for learning, teaching and research.
Since 1997, Bio-Gärtnerei Watzkendorf GmbH is a certified nursery for biological vegetables and seedlings. With over 40 varieties in 2 ha of greenhouses and 26 ha of acre, it supplies his customers in Berlin and surrounding areas. Seedlings are produced for a broad amount of nurseries in northeast Germany.
Besides the production, Watzkendorf takes constantly part in various research projects with different partners in science and politics to improve the cultivation and trading processes.
Interteam Project Management specializes in managing large, publicly funded projects. We have proven expertise in accompanying projects through all stages from the initial idea stage, writing the proposal and setting up a consortium for the successful management of large-scale EU-funded projects praised by both evaluators and relevant stakeholders.
Interteam has gained considerable experience in coordinating, supervising and managing R&D and other large-scale publicly funded projects for universities, research institutions, and public and private companies.
Timelex
Timelex is a niche law firm based in Brussels, specialised in information technology and electronic communications law in the broadest sense, including privacy protection, data and information management, e-business, intellectual property and telecommunications. Its activities cover all legal issues encountered in the creation, management and exploitation of information and technology, in all its diverse forms.
Timelex will support the REGACE consortium in the analysis of legal issues and the management of intellectual property rights.