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Date Published: 13/08/2024

Murcia vineyards experiment with solar panels for tastier wine

Six tonnes of delicious Merseguera grapes have been harvested from these innovative plots in Cartagena, Jumilla and Yecla

The Region of Murcia has several award-winning wines but with so many top-class grape growers to choose from, competition is fierce to make the product even better year after year. That’s why three vineyards in Cartagena, Yecla and Jumilla are experimenting with solar panels, and investigating whether the shade generated has any impact on the taste of their wine.

This ground-breaking trial is the brainchild of the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT) and the solar panels have been installed on part of the plot of the Tomás Ferro Experimental Agro-Food Station. This week, six tonnes of the Merseguera grape, native to the Campo de Cartagena, has been harvested. While the majority will be used to produce the famous Tomás Ferro white wine, some will be held back to discover whether or not they’ve been improved by the photovoltaic system.

“The aim is to integrate photovoltaic energy into the vineyards without affecting their production,” explains Javier Padilla, head of the Enovoltaics project at UPCT.

The panels in this project are placed in such a way that they only add 3% shade to the trunk of the vine and nothing to the leaves or grapes. The shading is calculated to basically affect the paths between the vines, so the researchers are measuring whether this generates water savings by increasing the soil’s water retention capacity.

At the Cartagena vineyard, 200 litres of experimental wine will be made with the grapes collected from the shaded vines and compared with non-shaded plants. The same will be done in Yecla and Jumilla when the grapes are ready to be harvested.

While researchers are hoping that the process will produce superior-tasting wine, if the project is a success its implementation could help the environment in a very real way, avoiding the monthly emission of some 60 tonnes of CO2 per hectare.

A study carried out by researchers from the Advanced Materials for Energy Production and Storage group at UPCT already indicated earlier this year that up to 1,377 tonnes/year of nitrate fertilisers can be avoided and water use can be reduced by up to 27 Hm3/year, by integrating solar modules with photovoltaic technology in agricultural areas of the Mar Menor.

In other news: EU reintroduces 100ml liquid rule at Spanish airports

Image: Freepik

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