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HY4RES is a transnational, multi-sectoral innovation project dedicated to the implementation of hybrid renewable energy systems. Its results are intended to be applied in a wide range of sectors: for domestic activities, in industry, ports, aquaculture and agriculture. Last March, the location of the project’s future pilot site dedicated to the agricultural sector has been successfully identified. It will be located in the Valle Inferior, more specifically on the Las Catalinas estate in the Irrigation Community. Visited by HY4RES partners Feragua and the University of Cordoba, the site is of great interest for hosting a hybrid renewable energy pilot system.
Hybrid renewable energy systems have great potential for applications in irrigation, where the installations are energy-intensive and where there is an urgent need to find sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels and reduce electricity bills. In Andalusia, it is estimated that electricity costs for irrigation communities now amounts to 200M€ per year.
In the Las Catalinas estate, located in the Municipality de la Rinconada, the main crops cultivated are potatoes, carrots, and peaches. The total irrigable area within the pilot site is 200 hectares.
Representatives from Feragua, UCO and local authorities from the irrigation community visited Las Catalinas to learn more about the existing infrastructures, on which HY4RES’ agricultural pilot site would bring new facilities and software.
HY4RES will benefit from the experience and knowledge generated in the REDAWN project. This projected developed micro-hydropower technology to improve the energy efficiency of water networks, and one of its the pilot sites was in the area.
In Las Catalinas, there is an irrigation pond with a surface area of 3822m², a pumping station with 4 pumps of 30 kW, irrigation hydrants with a flow of 150 l/s, pressure of 4 bar and excess pressure of approximately 2 bar, plus piping and a control panel.
Valle Inferior has also the largest solar plant for self-consumption in Spanish irrigation, with 6 MWp of power. In addition to that, solar plants are currently being implemented, or have already been installed in several locations in Andalusia: in Seville, Cordoba, Huelva and Jaén.
In addition to these installations, HY4RES will install a hydraulic micro-turbine and a floating solar panel on the irrigation pond. The project will also develop energy storage solutions, intelligent management software using Big Data and artificial intelligence to predict energy production and consumption.
The set up of this pilot site aims at testing and evaluating the feasibility of a hybrid renewable energy system using different energy sources (solar energy, hydropower) to produce electricity and increase the share of renewable energies in the energy consumption.
If the energy produced by the hybrid system will not cover the energy needs of a pumping station, it will reduce the imports from the grid by covering other energy needs such as for lighting systems, programming and filtering, refrigeration, small pumping systems and electric vehicle recharging.
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