Voltiris

AI Quick Summary

Greenhouses are key to a sustainable food supply, but have high energy needs at high cost and emitting a lot of CO2. Covering their roofs with PV panels would be ideal, but crops growing in greenhouses cannot afford shade.Voltiris has developed color-optimized PV modules that filter sunlight: the plants get the colors they need to grow, while all the rest is used to generate electricity.Voltiris help greenhouse owners better control their energy costs, improve their viability and their sustainability. Project idea description- What problem would you like to solve? By 2050, the global population will reach 10 billion individuals. In order to feed them without increasing the human footprint on the plant, we need a highly efficient food system. With their high agricultural yields, greenhouses will be key and their surfaces are therefore expected to grow by a factor of 15 by 2050.However, greenhouses have one main problem: their significant energetic needs that is usually sourced from fossile sources like gas. In addition to the sustainability problem, in the wake of the actual energetic crisis, greenhouse owners see their viability challenged and they cannot keep up with the uncertainty on the future price of their energy supply. For example, a standard greenhouse (5ha) owner now spends 1.5MCHF/year in energetic cost, representing 35% of his total cost structure up from 20% a few years ago.A solution would be to install standard PV panels on top of the large greenhouse roofs to produce locally energy. However, most of the greenhouse crops (tomato, pepper...) cannot afford any shading without a significant reduction in their yield. - Who are the customers and how will they profit from a solution?Voltiris has developed color-optimized PV panels that filter sunlight: the light colors needed by the plants reach them, while the rest of the sunlight is used to generate electricity. The modules enable a true double land-use as crops are not impacted by the panels. A solar-tracking system allows for an electricity generation at par with standard fix PV panels, with a competitive levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of around 7 cts/kWh.By installing our PV modules, the greenhouse owner can(1) improve his viability by either selling the electricity to the grid or saving on his energetic costs. By covering fully his greenhouse with Voltiris modules, a greenhouse owner can save up to 750kCHF annually in energy costs(2) gain control over his energy costs, as he can locally generate his own electricity(3) improve his sustainability, as demanded by many ecosystem members (retailers, consumers...). - How does your project idea affect energy savings or CO2 emissions?Voltiris modules are sold per 1m2 of panel. On average, it is possible to cover 35% of the ground surface of a greenhouse with Voltiris modules.For a standard greenhouse of 5ha, 17,500 Voltiris modules of size 1m2 can be installed (5ha * 35%). The 17,500 modules transform a greenhouse owner into a yearly energy producer of 4.4 GWh of electricity (peak power 2.4 MW).When the energy is valorized internally as self-consumption, the emissions of a 5ha greenhouse are reduced by up to 4,200 tons of CO2 per year (~55% reduction). There are 100 greenhouse owners in Switzerland, 2,000 in the Netherlands and 10,000 worlwide. The global greenhouse surface is expected to grow x15 by 2050.On the scale of the Netherlands, if all greenhouses were equipped with Voltiris’ modules, the consumption of the agricultural sector would be reduced by almost 20% and the country's emissions would be reduced by 2%. Current status and previous activities- What has been tried before? What was not successful? What have you learned?Previous activities:· Innovative greenhouse roof concept (march 2021): We originally wanted to develop a novel greenhouse roof design. However, after discussion with greenhouse owners, we realized that the concept was not suited for them.· Prototyping phase (August 2021): After discussion with greenhouse owners we arrived to our current reflector design. One module was left into a greenhouse at a partner (Mottiez fleurs) for 6 months· Agronomical study and system thinking (February 2022): We have currently an agronomical study running at Agroscope in Conthey (Valais) in collaboration with the HES-SO. There a system of 5 modules are running on top of tomatoes and basil to evaluate the impact of our system on crops growth.Ongoing activities:· Small-scale pilot project in a greenhouse in the Graubünden· Larger-scale agronomical study in the Netherlands· Implementation of our solution in several partner greenhouses in CH and in the Netherlands Resources needed- What are your planned work packages?Workpackage description & ressources neededAs we are currently gaining in project size, it is now important to gather a maximal amount of customer feedbacks about the practical implementation of our solutions in greenhouses with different geometries, crops and geographies. When a greenhouse owner is satisfied by our solution, his installation serve as a showcase of our technology for greenhouse owners in his network. Note that implementing our solution fully in a single standard size greenhouse amount to a business opportunity for Voltiris of 8MCHF.We are therefore planning to implement at 4 different locations (2 greenhouses in the Netherlands and 2 greenhouses in Switzerland) a set of 6 modules each time.The ressources needed for this workpackage are the following:Our current cost per module is ~800CHF. 4 greenhouses x 6 modules/greenhouse= 24 modules for a cost of 19kCHF.The financial support from EnergyLab could therefore cover all the material costs of our customer feeback iteration.- How can the Energy Lab help you?Beside the financial help, the energy lab helps Voltiris gain in visibility and credibility in the energy ecosystem. We also hope that we could find potential partners through the energy lab such as energy providers/solar energy experts that could help us set up solar contracting solutions/help for the implementation of various customer projects in the future.

Project Idea Metadata

Project Idea Name: Voltiris
Date: 6/1/2022 2:41:16 PM
Administrators:
- Jonas Roch

Project Idea Description

Project idea description

- What problem would you like to solve?

By 2050, the global population will reach 10 billion individuals. In order to feed them without increasing the human footprint on the plant, we need a highly efficient food system. With their high agricultural yields, greenhouses will be key and their surfaces are therefore expected to grow by a factor of 15 by 2050.

However, greenhouses have one main problem: their significant energetic needs that is usually sourced from fossile sources like gas. In addition to the sustainability problem, in the wake of the actual energetic crisis, greenhouse owners see their viability challenged and they cannot keep up with the uncertainty on the future price of their energy supply. For example, a standard greenhouse (5ha) owner now spends 1.5MCHF/year in energetic cost, representing 35% of his total cost structure up from 20% a few years ago.

A solution would be to install standard PV panels on top of the large greenhouse roofs to produce locally energy. However, most of the greenhouse crops (tomato, pepper...) cannot afford any shading without a significant reduction in their yield.

- Who are the customers and how will they profit from a solution?

Voltiris has developed color-optimized PV panels that filter sunlight: the light colors needed by the plants reach them, while the rest of the sunlight is used to generate electricity. The modules enable a true double land-use as crops are not impacted by the panels. A solar-tracking system allows for an electricity generation at par with standard fix PV panels, with a competitive levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of around 7 cts/kWh.

By installing our PV modules, the greenhouse owner can

(1) improve his viability by either selling the electricity to the grid or saving on his energetic costs. By covering fully his greenhouse with Voltiris modules, a greenhouse owner can save up to 750kCHF annually in energy costs

(2) gain control over his energy costs, as he can locally generate his own electricity

(3) improve his sustainability, as demanded by many ecosystem members (retailers, consumers...).

- How does your project idea affect energy savings or CO2 emissions?

Voltiris modules are sold per 1m² of panel. On average, it is possible to cover 35% of the ground surface of a greenhouse with Voltiris modules.

For a standard greenhouse of 5ha, 17,500 Voltiris modules of size 1m² can be installed (5ha * 35%). The 17,500 modules transform a greenhouse owner into a yearly energy producer of 4.4 GWh of electricity (peak power 2.4 MW).

When the energy is valorized internally as self-consumption, the emissions of a 5ha greenhouse are reduced by up to 4,200 tons of CO₂ per year (~55% reduction). There are 100 greenhouse owners in Switzerland, 2,000 in the Netherlands and 10,000 worlwide. The global greenhouse surface is expected to grow x15 by 2050.

On the scale of the Netherlands, if all greenhouses were equipped with Voltiris’ modules, the consumption of the agricultural sector would be reduced by almost 20% and the country's emissions would be reduced by 2%.

Current status and previous activities

- What has been tried before? What was not successful? What have you learned?

Previous activities:

· Innovative greenhouse roof concept (march 2021): We originally wanted to develop a novel greenhouse roof design. However, after discussion with greenhouse owners, we realized that the concept was not suited for them.

· Prototyping phase (August 2021): After discussion with greenhouse owners we arrived to our current reflector design. One module was left into a greenhouse at a partner (Mottiez fleurs) for 6 months

· Agronomical study and system thinking (February 2022): We have currently an agronomical study running at Agroscope in Conthey (Valais) in collaboration with the HES-SO. There a system of 5 modules are running on top of tomatoes and basil to evaluate the impact of our system on crops growth.

Ongoing activities:

· Small-scale pilot project in a greenhouse in the Graubünden

· Larger-scale agronomical study in the Netherlands

· Implementation of our solution in several partner greenhouses in CH and in the Netherlands

Resources needed

- What are your planned work packages?

Workpackage description & ressources needed

As we are currently gaining in project size, it is now important to gather a maximal amount of customer feedbacks about the practical implementation of our solutions in greenhouses with different geometries, crops and geographies. When a greenhouse owner is satisfied by our solution, his installation serve as a showcase of our technology for greenhouse owners in his network. Note that implementing our solution fully in a single standard size greenhouse amount to a business opportunity for Voltiris of 8MCHF.

We are therefore planning to implement at 4 different locations (2 greenhouses in the Netherlands and 2 greenhouses in Switzerland) a set of 6 modules each time.

The ressources needed for this workpackage are the following:

Our current cost per module is ~800CHF. 4 greenhouses x 6 modules/greenhouse= 24 modules for a cost of 19kCHF.

The financial support from EnergyLab could therefore cover all the material costs of our customer feeback iteration.

- How can the Energy Lab help you?

Beside the financial help, the energy lab helps Voltiris gain in visibility and credibility in the energy ecosystem. We also hope that we could find potential partners through the energy lab such as energy providers/solar energy experts that could help us set up solar contracting solutions/help for the implementation of various customer projects in the future.

Voltiris has developed color-optimized PV modules that filter sunlight: the plants get the colors they need to grow, while all the rest is used to generate electricity.

Voltiris help greenhouse owners better control their energy costs, improve their viability and their sustainability.