First Nordic Solar farming living lab

To achieve the EU’s climate transition goals, an expansion of renewable energy sources is required. The development of renewable energy technology needs to be combined with energy and land use efficiency. Both Denmark and Sweden share the need to find solutions where multiple benefits can be created on the same land. One way is to combine agriculture and solar energy. The concept is called agrivoltaics, but we choose to use the more Nordic term ‘solar farming systems.’ A completed preliminary project has shown that there is a lack of research and proven experience on how and if solar farming systems can be designed to both provide efficient solar energy production while maintaining or even improving food production.

This cross-border Interreg project is created to fill the knowledge gap. We will work through a Living Lab  to theoretically and practically investigate and demonstrate how solar farming systems and energy storage can be effectively combined on the same surface. The project lays the foundation for a long-term and sustainable Living Lab, designed as a dynamic platform that contributes to building and spreading knowledge about new innovative solar farming systems. The project will create a Living Lab consisting of four different demonstration environments, two in each country, to develop the knowledge we found lacking in the preliminary project. The variation in the different demonstration environments allows for comparison of results, creating a better knowledge base. The cross-border nature of the project is crucial for evaluating systems from a Nordic context. Additionally, several added values are created when the project achieves geographical spread