Energy efficiency and photovoltaic solar for greenhouse agriculture

Greenhouse industry has evolved in the last decade as a very important economical activity in agriculture. As a result, the interest towards investment in this sector has been increasing in many countries of Europe. In Italy, most of the greenhouse areas are located in the southern regions where there is an enormous amount of incoming solar energy. On average, this large availability allows a generation of PV energy not less than 200 kWh/m2 /year, that can be used for a variety of applications in greenhouse (motorization, pumping, ventilation, heating and cooling). Evaluations made from ENEA, estimated a total greenhouse energy consumption of 0.73 MTOE/year, to which correspond to about 2.06 MTons of CO2 emissions. Furthermore, data achieved by the ENEA project Modem to improve the energy efficiency and to support the development of photovoltaic solar greenhouses are reported. Both these subjects are being investigated with the general aim to find out solutions to cut down fossil energy demand and CO2 emissions, in order to innovate Italian greenhouse agriculture sector.