Pilots agrivoltaics model in Da Lat

DNHN - GIZ has realized the enormous potential of the agrivoltaics model for Viet Nam, a country with large-scale agricultural production and increasing demand for electricity consumption to meet economic growth rates.

GIZ Energy Support Program, Da Lat University, Envelops Co. Ltd., Haezoom Corp., Korea Leading Engineering System Inc., Green Technology Center and Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE e.V. signed a memorandum of understanding for establishing a close partnership and proactive cooperation in researching and developing the pilot agrivoltaics model, as well as enabling co-facilitation of market development for this new technology.

This is one of the cooperation activities between GIZ and development partners, research partners, and private stakeholders with the aim of promoting green energy solutions development and application, contributing to the realization of sustainable energy transition in Vietnam and the net-zero target by 2050.

The agrivoltaics model is the combination of solar PV panels directly installed on crops land and crops production. This model provides high land productivity as it makes use of crops land for clean energy production. The energy produced will be used for onsite production, processing, and storage of agricultural products as well as other economic activities in adjacent areas.

Thomas Krohn, project & portfolio manager of GIZ Energy Support Program emphasized that agrivoltaics is a new model not only for Vietnam but also for other countries in the world. 

GIZ has realized the enormous potential of the agrivoltaics model for Vietnam, a country with large-scale agricultural production and increasing demand for electricity consumption to meet economic growth rates. Implementing this model enables the improvement of land use efficiency due to the utilization of agricultural space for solar power production. 

"The scale-up of agrivoltaics model will generate a significant volume of clean energy for agriculture and all economic activities in the region as long as it is thoroughly studied and calculated," said Thomas Krohn.

The experiences of Korean partners in agriculture and photovoltaic energy projects, especially in terms of system design, modeling, photovoltaic energy prediction and smart agriculture will be shared with the project partners. 

Through the joint cooperation of the governments of Vietnam, Germany and South Korea, the agrivoltaics model can be fully optimized for the agriculture sector of Da Lat city as the current agricultural production activities are relying much on conventional energy sources. The project outcomes can contribute to the city’s carbon emission reduction strategy and promote a smart agricultural production system.

ENVELOPS, a renewable energy project developer focused on climate change issues, is currently conducting a feasibility study of a 10MW agrivoltaics project in Da Lat partnered with the Korean Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises. This pilot project will be one of the key milestones of the study of the actual potential of such agrivoltaics system in Da Lat.

The project team will use this pilot model as the basis for further research on the application of agrivoltaics model on a wide scale in Vietnam. Research activities will include agronomic research, solar power system research, development of appropriate business models and policy research. The pilot project will lay a foundation and kickstart future projects of stakeholders using the same technology in Vietnam.

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