Forschungsprojekt STRAWBERRIES – Innovative Agri-Solarthermie für eine nachhaltige und flächeneffiziente Wärmeversorgung

As the large-scale use of solar energy on open land continues to develop, the competition for land use between solar energy generation and agricultural use is increasingly coming into focus. While so-called agri-photovoltaic (Agri-PV) systems have already been developed and successfully implemented in the field of photovoltaics, a solar thermal implementation of this bifacial system concept has so far not existed.
With this in mind, the Institute of New Energy Systems (InES) of the Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt is collaborating with European partners to develop the world’s first bifacial, vertically mounted agri-solar thermal system.
This new system enables highly space-efficient solar heat generation while still allowing for the use of land for agriculture.
 

The system design is based on highly efficient insulated glass collectors, which were also developed by the Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt. 
In these collectors, a highly selective coated absorber is embedded between two glass panels. A hermetically sealed housing allows for the use of a noble gas for thermal insulation. 
The collector’s transparency on both sides enables thermal utilization of the rear side (bifaciality) and therefore forms the basis for the STRAWBERRIES project.