PALMA DEL RÍO (CÓRDOBA), June 13. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The University of Córdoba (UCO) and the Association of Irrigation Communities of Andalusia, Feragua, will study, in a pioneering manner in Europe, the simultaneous application of several renewable energy sources to power irrigation systems in an irrigation community.
As reported by Feragua in a note, this is one of the issues that have been discussed at the headquarters of the Community of Irrigators of the Left Margin of Genil in Palma del Río (Córdoba), which hosted one of the conferences this Thursday. of the meeting organized by the UCO, which is being held until this Friday in Córdoba and which has had the participation of all the partners of the European innovation project HY4RES, in which partners from Spain, Portugal, France and Ireland collaborate.
During the meeting, the objectives and first steps of this project were presented, the objective of which is energy efficiency and reduction of emissions with intelligent renewable energy systems from various sources.
It has been reported that the possibilities of creating hybrid renewable energy systems with which individual and collective consumers can be self-sufficient will be tested in four pilot plants: one in Ireland, with application in aquaculture; a second in Portugal, with application in the rural residential sector, and two others in Spain, specifically in Oviedo, with application in the port sector, and in Seville, in the Community of Irrigators of the Lower Guadalquivir Valley, associated with Feragua and collaborating member of the project, with application in the irrigation sector.
The HY4RES pilot plant for irrigation will be located, specifically, in La Rinconada, on land belonging to the Irrigable Zone of the Lower Guadalquivir Valley. The objective of this plant is to evaluate the integrated application of energy from a hydraulic microturbine and a floating solar panel in the irrigation pond on a farm with an area of 126 hectares.
Specifically, what is intended is to take another step to achieve a zero carbon footprint model, in which the production of own energy from different sources (solar and hydroelectric) allows us to supply part of the energy needs of consumption, developing the generation and management technologies necessary for this.
In this regard, the president of Feragua, José Manuel Cepeda, indicated during the opening of the conference that “we irrigators are committed to innovation and sustainability and we are convinced that this project is essential to guarantee a cleaner and more efficient energy future.” “.
For his part, UCO researcher Emilio Camacho has pointed out that “the HY4RES project combines hydraulic energy, taking advantage of the energy from the irrigation network, and photovoltaics, and AI and Big Data techniques will also be applied to optimally process that energy.
The mayor of Palma del Río, Matilde Esteo, for her part, has highlighted the fundamental role that technology and innovation have in Andalusian agriculture for agriculture. “Projects like HY $ RES allow us to optimize water and energy resources, it is true long-term work,” she commented.
For his part, Aonghus McNabola, from Trinity College Dublin and coordinator of the project, explained that “with the HY4RES project we seek to investigate renewable energies applied to all sectors. It is possible thanks to all the partners that make up this initiative. Its four plants are a pure example of innovation”.
The manager of the Irrigation Community of the Lower Valley, Rafael Calvo, also spoke, and explained his experience with the photovoltaic plant installed on the land of his irrigation community: “We have achieved that 74% of the energy consumed by our users comes from of our photovoltaic plant and the ECO20 ‘Silver’ certificate for self-consumption”.
At the closing, David González Tojas, from the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, assured that HY4RES was “an example” of knowing how to take advantage of opportunities to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions and climate change.
For his part, the general director of Agricultural and Livestock Production of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Daniel Quesada, has encouraged the irrigators and project partners to continue working in the same direction. “Irrigation is one of the pillars of development in rural areas. Count, of course, on the support of the Ministry,” he indicated.
Finally, the mayor of Lora del Río (Seville), Antonio Enamorado, has defended the ecological spirit of the farmer and the professional who lives from the natural environment. “The greatest environmentalist is in the countryside, not in the lobby offices of Europe. I congratulate you for fighting for energy sovereignty, threatened today by geopolitical circumstances.”
THE EUROPEAN PROJECT
Hy4RES is the acronym, in English, for Hybrid Solutions for Renewable Energy Systems, and addresses a double interrelated objective. On the one hand, the joint use and exploitation of wind, solar and hydroelectric energy, in order to promote self-consumption based on clean energy and thus reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. On the other hand, the use of innovative storage systems and management solutions capable of combining the variable generation of different types of renewable energy, making consumers, whether individual or collective, more self-sufficient.
Therefore, the project includes the development of intelligent renewable energy management software that combines big data analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. This technology will be aimed at promoting the management, forecasting and interoperability of different renewable energies in a hybrid system, and all from the perspective of not only environmental but also economic sustainability: the implementation of low-cost technologies is one of the transversal premises of this project.
Feragua, the UCO and the Community of Irrigators of the Lower Guadalquivir Valley, which hosts the pilot plant, are the entities that lead within the project the research related to the application of the mix of renewable energies in irrigation.
The modernization of irrigation, with the consequent commitment to more efficient but more energy-demanding irrigation systems, and the disappearance of the special electricity rate for irrigation, has meant an enormous increase in electrical costs for irrigation communities, which In Andalusia it is estimated that they already amount to 200 million euros annually. Environmental aspects must be added to the economic aspects.
In this context, irrigation communities are betting on the installation of solar plants with which to reduce their energy dependence and reduce emissions into the atmosphere. In Andalusia, in addition to the Lower Valley, other irrigation communities such as Bajo Guadalquivir, Viar and Ribera de Corbones, in Seville; Genil Cabra, Bembézar Margen Derecha and Genil Margen Izquierda, in Córdoba; Palos de la Frontera, Sur Andévalo, El Fresno and Valdemaria, in Huelva; Our Lady of Sorrows, in Jaén; Albolote, in Granada; o Almanzora and El Saltador Caves in Almería; among others, they also have solar plants in operation or in the pipeline.
For irrigation, HY4RES represents the opportunity to evaluate the possibility of applying other renewable energy sources that allow reducing the cost of the electricity bill in addition to reducing gas emissions, minimizing the carbon footprint and therefore the environmental impact of its productive activity.
