The SOLARWINE Operational Group presented the progress of its project within the framework of the second edition of the Energy Global Expo & Congress (EGEC 2025), held from 11 to 13 November. The presentation took place on the 12th, after the coffee break, within the session dedicated to “R&D applied to agrivoltaics”, where Francisco Javier Pérez from Tornasol Fotovoltaica and David Carles from Familia Torres presented the first results of the pilot installations and the strategic objectives of the project.
During the session, the speakers explained how SOLARWINE aims to enhance the value of agricultural land, promote dual land use, and contribute to protecting the landscape and agricultural heritage, while increasing crop resilience to extreme climatic events. The presentation highlighted that one of the major challenges of the project is demonstrating the technical, economic, and business viability of agrivoltaics specifically applied to grapevine cultivation, providing an innovative solution for the viticulture of the future.
The SOLARWINE Operational Group has completed the installation of two agrivoltaic pilot plants, totalling 2,000 m² of experimental surface:
1,000 m² in the organic vineyard of the Sumoll variety in Mas Rabell of Familia Torres, in Sant Martí Sarroca (Penedès, Barcelona).
1,000 m² in the organic vineyards of the Bobal variety at Huerto Tornasol, in Fuentealbilla (Albacete).
These two locations, situated in regions with different climatic conditions, enable interregional knowledge exchange and allow more robust results by comparing agrivoltaic performance across diverse scenarios of grape varieties, temperature, radiation and humidity.
In their EGEC 2025 presentation, project members detailed the technical characteristics of the pilots, designed in line with the principles of Agriculture 4.0:
Structures raised to 5 metres, enabling the passage of machinery and facilitating automated harvesting, one of the innovative elements of the project.
Installation of opaque and semi-transparent bifacial solar panels, creating different shading densities to assess their impact on the crop.
The pilots are equipped with an extensive network of agronomic, soil and climate sensors that allow real-time data collection to assess:
Microclimate generated beneath the panels
Soil moisture and temperature
Vine water behaviour
Impact on grape yield and quality
Energy performance of the different types of modules
This monitoring system will provide key information to assess the efficiency and sustainability of the agrivoltaic model in organic vineyards.
Furthermore, during the EGEC 2025 presentation, partners highlighted that SOLARWINE represents a strategic opportunity for the Spanish wine sector, especially in the face of climate change challenges and the sustained rise in temperatures.
Agrivoltaics applied to grapevines not only provides selective shading, but may also help improve productivity, water-use efficiency and crop resilience, while simultaneously generating renewable energy without limiting agricultural land use.
With the installations already in operation, SOLARWINE is now in the data collection and analysis phase, which is essential for validating the model and laying the foundations for its potential transfer to the sector as a whole.
Finally, it is worth noting that the project SOLARWINE: New agrivoltaic systems for intelligent and sustainable grape production has a total budget of €706,696.55, of which €599,938.89 has been financed under the CAP Strategic Plan 2023–2027, co-funded by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).
The project is led by the Catalan Wine Cluster (INNOVI) and includes the participation of Familia Torres, Huerto Tornasol and the Valencian Community Energy Cluster (CECV). Supporting entities include: INDEREN, providing advanced technological solutions; the Wine Technology Platform (PTV) for sector-wide knowledge transfer; Gala Media, specialised in wine communication; INCAVI, as a public research body; and Artica+i, the project’s technical office.
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