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Is Agrivoltaics an option?

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The blogmaster understands there was an attempt by a customer to implement an Agrivoltaics system but because of the “the indecision by the FTC on battery storage” the project has been on hold.

What is agrivoltaics?

An agrivoltaic system combines solar photovoltaic (PV) panels with agricultural activities on the same land, maximizing land use and potentially boosting both energy production and crop yields. 

If Barbados is to develop a viable solution to improve production cost in the agriculture sector technology will have to be integral production. At the moment there is a stalment situation because of the government’s lack of capacity to support batter storage.

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12 responses to “Is Agrivoltaics an option?”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Some farmers say water rate ‘still too high’

    By Josué Ramiréz Nelson

    josuenelson@nationnews. com

    While some farmers welcome the reduction in the price of water for agricultural use, they don’t expect the change to make a splash.

    Expressing his feelings on the decrease, which formed part of the 2025-2026 Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals, farmer and vendor Bernard Greaves said with a usage of seven to eight hours a day of water, $1 per cubic metre still draws a fairly high bill. The current rate is $1.80 per cubic metre.

    Speaking with the Sunday Sun under his tent at the Cheapside Market in The City yesterday, the watermelon farmer recalled a time when the price for water use was only $0.60 per cubic metre.

    Greaves elaborated on the volume of water needed to manage irrigation on a farm.

    “For you [nonfarmers], you get up in the morning, you brush your teeth and you get some coffee or tea and that’s that. Then you’re going to get a shower, you go to work and come back home. When you get back home, you may cook, bathe and that’s that. So you use that tap at least five times and in those five times you use that tap, you cannot even get a quarter of water that a fellow like me use.

    Really hard

    “The water is really hard on farmers and when a farmer runs water you’re running water for a whole day, a whole day is about a half-hour in water for you and I’m running it for six and seven hours,” he said.

    In addition, the climate conditions and sweltering heats mean that he is forced to expend even more water to provide his crops with the adequate conditions.

    “It’s so hot outside that the water is evaporating before it even touches the soil. It’s so hot you have to keep pumping that water and when you bring that water from $1.80 to $1 you haven’t done anything for the farmers,” he added, while also pointing to the increase in the cost of seeds which farmers need.

    Presently, the market price for watermelon is $3 a pound, a price which he feels is more than what he would prefer to charge his customers. “You think that I should be selling watermelon at this price to put my poor black people under pressure? So when you put pressure underneath me, what you expect me to do, I can’t do anything but try my best,” he said.

    Praised reduction

    Cardinal Lewis, another farmer and vendor, praised the reduction of the water rate, saying farmers have been struggling for too long while trying to pay the previous rate.

    “It’s great that it came back to a dollar, that’s manageable. At $1.80 the price was triple than the $0.60 price we were paying before. So, if we were paying $1 000 a month, we now paying $3 000 and you had to pay it otherwise you can’t farm, so it’s great that it came back down,” he said.

    He also pointed to the other issues affecting farmers, beyond the water rates, such as pests in the fields, the rising cost of seeds and saturation of crops.

    “Before cucumbers were $3 a pound. Right now vendors are selling cucumbers for $1 per pound, but the farmer is getting $15 for a bag. Good quality seeds cost $130-135, only for you to pick 70 pounds of crops and only get $15 for that. As a farmer sometimes you’re operating for just operating sake because it’s worse than a loss,” he said.

    Aaron Pall, a former farmer now turned vendor said the ups and downs of the job, coupled with the damages from pests caused him to quit farming altogether.

    Concerning the decreased water rate, he felt it would be a positive change for people who were farming, noting that they needed a welldeserved ease. Another farmer and vendor, Lionel Rudder believed some decisions in the agriculture sector were made without proper consultation with the farmers as he expressed his displeasure with decisions relating to the neglect of arable land.

    “I feel the government should call a peace meeting with the farmers and ask them to recognise that if they’ve got the land, they’re supposed to be utilising it to the benefit of the people.

    “Because if you want to eat properly, you must be able to produce some of the things that the community can maintain,” he said.

  2. David Avatar
    David

    Hydrogen tanks installed on HDF’s pioneering Renewstable plant in French Guiana

    HDF ENERGY, the parent company of HDF Caribbean, which launched its regional headquarters in Bridgetown, Barbados, in November of last year, marked another significant regional milestone with the installation of hydrogen tanks on the Centrale Électrique de l’Ouest Guyanais (CEOG).

    HDF Energy is the pioneering developer of this project, the world’s first multi-megawatt hydrogen power plant currently under construction by Siemens Energy in French Guiana. It is based on HDF’s proprietary Renewstable technology which harnesses solar and/or wind power to produce hydrogen, which is stored in tanks before being converted into electricity using HDF’s cutting-edge 1.5 MW fuel cells. In total, 26 tanks will be needed to ensure this storage is readily available to provide stable, non-intermittent renewable power around the clock for 10,000 households, while also serving as a strategic reserve in case of grid failures. A similar operation is expected for the Renewstable Barbados (RSB) plant once the project commences construction.

    Since December, residents of French Guiana have been witnessing the movement of impressive convoys through the streets of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni; giant tankers measuring 21 metres in length and 2.85 metres in diameter and weighing 35 tonnes each.

    To date, all twenty-six (26) of the hydrogen tanks have been installed on the project site in French Guiana. Installing these tanks represents a technical logistical operation critical to the project’s green hydrogen production component. A local comparison to this operation would be the 6 000-gallon LPG tanks installed at Spring Garden. Next Up: The Renewstable Barbados Project!

    Barbados is also expecting to benefit from this type of clean energy storage solution through its recently licensed Renewstable Barbados (RSB) project. The project will introduce to Barbados the first commercial production of green hydrogen for energy storage in the English-speaking Caribbean.

    With the assistance of local partners, the Barbados project team, led by Jacqueline Beckles, head of HDF Caribbean’s Regional Operations, is identifying the preliminary documentation and specific requirements to facilitate the transportation of the tanks from the Bridgetown Port to the project site at Harrow, St Philip.

    On discussing the RSB project, Beckles noted that “the project’s logistical exercise will require the identification of optimal ground transportation mechanisms, route mapping, road preparation, and managed haulage schedules to minimise commuter disruption and ensure adherence to road traffic and safety protocols”, all of which have been identified and mapped out through the project’s Traffic Management and Route Mitigation Plans as part of the project’s planning requirements.

    Barbados stands to benefit from the associated job opportunities that will be generated from the project as well as international best practices and knowledge transfer at the project execution stage. The team has already identified those specific work packages through which local and regional contractors can make a significant contribution to the construction of the project.

    At the end of January 2025, the RSB project issued its first Request for Information (RFI) inviting suitable contractors, subcontractors and suppliers to submit preliminary proposals. With the launch of its newly-minted Barbados-based office, the country stands to benefit once more, as Barbados serves as the regional hub for the development of green hydrogen projects across the Caribbean.

    Source: Nation

  3. John Avatar
    John

    “Before cucumbers were $3 a pound. Right now vendors are selling cucumbers for $1 per pound, but the farmer is getting $15 for a bag. Good quality seeds cost $130-135, only for you to pick 70 pounds of crops and only get $15 for that. As a farmer sometimes you’re operating for just operating sake because it’s worse than a loss,” he said.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    I was told when I tried cucumbers that it was a sacrificial crop.

    There ae times when conditions favour their growth and every body grows them.

    This leads to an over, supply, simple.

    Small farmers in the 1950’s and 60’s depended on sugar cane because the price of sugar was so high back then.

    They then intercropped various vegetables.

    It is obvious what worked in the past and what did not.

    Depending only on vegetables is a recipe for financial ruin.

    Depending only on sugar today likewise.

    It is probably going to be the large farmer who will survive financially.

    Go look at Brighton’s Farmers’ Market on a Saturday.

    Take a look at how the fields are used.

  4. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    Farmers should be given priority for grid tie solar installations with panels mounted at least 7 feet above ground which will not limit land use for agriculture.

    This design will allow vegetable and livestock grazing underneath the panels providing shade from the sun and supplemental income from solar earnings to offset farm costs.

  5. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Agreed @CA
    “Farmers should be given priority for grid tie solar installations with panels mounted at least 7 feet above ground which will not limit land use for agriculture.”
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Sensible and logical proposal.
    BUT…
    It would NEVER happen in Brassbados, because it does NOT involve ‘building with precast concrete’, not would there be scope for politicians and Public Service officials to be ‘incentivised’ to give the various licenses and permissions…
    Nor for the usual rich parasitic class to hog the show….

    The right to such energy installations could also be TIED to agricultural production – thereby incentivising interest in farming and local food production…

    That kinda thinking could NEVER emerge under a Doo Shiite regime.

    What a place!!

  6. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Bushie

    Keep up! This is already well entrenched in the government’s policy. You need to read more, unless you’re a serial cherrypicker.

  7. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    LOL @ Enuff
    What read more ‘policy’ what!!??
    Bushie don’t waste time READING shiite…
    Bushie WATCHES wunna…. (Is THAT not what the Big Boss directed..?)

    As already stated, your people SAY all the politically correct things… THEN they DooShiite…
    Critical Analyser is talking about DOING…!!

    What Bushie SEES …
    …Is farmers leasing their land to SPECULATORS who were looking to make a quick buck off the RIDICULOUSLY HIGH tariffs set by the PRESSURED FTC… to be passed on to customers… (until the madness crashed)

    Where is the incentive for (poor) FARMERS to augment their farming (priority) with RE?
    The Scam with sheep was just a PR rouse – where the speculators contracted that aspect to some friend – who is now mostly looking to learn about sheep…

    Wheel and come Enuff…

  8. David Avatar
    David

    @GA

    Good comment.

    Something we have laboured to explain on this blog over the years is that a relevant vision is required to trigger all the changes we clamour for.

  9. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    EGFL, but I don’t think you should try to challenge me on this one. You ever notice how you always have to rely on hyperbole?🤣

  10. David Avatar
    David

    How many people access EGGL, a niche player?

  11. David Avatar
    David

    Similarities?

    #puertorico #hawaii

    https://youtu.be/t0WGbfA4bKE

    Send the video to Minister Weir.

  12. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2025/2/19/offensive-agricole-burkina-faso-africas-new-directions

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