Solar power and agriculture on the same field - RWE and Forschungszentrum Jülich are investigating how this can work best in a demonstration plant in the Rhineland mining district.

Since June, RWE has been building the Agri-Photovoltaic (Agri-PV) plant on the edge of the Garzweiler opencast lignite mine on a re-cultivation area of around seven hectares, where solar power is to be generated and arable farming and horticulture are to be carried out at the same time. The research project is being funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia through the progres.nrw program for climate protection and energy transition. The demonstration plant will have a capacity of 3.2 megawatts peak (equivalent to around 2.5 MWac) and is scheduled to go into operation by the end of the year. Research activities are scheduled to start at the beginning of 2024 and will run for at least five years.

Contact IBG-2: Dr. Matthias Meier