"Semi-transparent OPV modules combine renewable energy production with crop protection"

Grownetics

09 Jun 2026 — 1 min read

According to the company, the facility will be the first automated R2R production line dedicated to OPV technology and is being developed with support from European Union funding. The modules are designed for integration into agricultural infrastructure, where electricity generation is combined with crop cultivation.

At GreenTech Amsterdam 2026, OET is presenting its flexible and semi-transparent organic photovoltaic technology to the greenhouse sector. Their semi-transparent properties allow part of the incoming sunlight to pass through, making them suitable for applications where both light transmission and energy generation are required." © OET According to OET, the OPV-integrated agrivoltaic systems are intended to combine renewable energy production with crop protection and resource management.

The company also reports that its agrivoltaic platform is designed to support temperature management and reduce water and energy consumption. In addition, OET indicates that field applications have demonstrated yield increases of up to 40%, although performance will depend on crop type, climate conditions and system configuration.

Why this matters: For operators, this is a water-management story. The useful signal is that direct substrate measurements can help cut drain loss materially without giving up yield or fruit quality, which is exactly the kind of controllable efficiency gain a facility can build on.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does substrate sensing matter in free-drain strawberry systems?

Because drain percentage tells a grower what already happened, while substrate moisture and EC data show root-zone conditions directly. That makes it easier to cut water loss without guessing.

What is the operator takeaway from this trial?

If the thresholds are understood well enough, growers can reduce drain water materially while protecting yield and fruit quality, which makes sensing an operational tool instead of a reporting tool.

"We hope to be able to streamline operations, grow profits and improve our sustainability"

Source: VFD.com ADOPT, which promotes collaborative practice and knowledge-sharing across the UK agriculture sector, has backed the project as a model for how smaller controlled environment agriculture (CEA) operators can improve operational efficiency and resilience through shared technology. The deployment is running across Harvest London's Canada Water

Optimizing CEA with environmental monitoring data

Source: VFD.com As growers strive to maximize yields and maintain consistency throughout the year, having access to accurate, actionable data is essential for understanding how conditions influence plant performance. An upcoming webinar from LI-COR will explore how monitoring key variables, including solar radiation, photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD), air

Getting the most out of drainage management in substrate cultivation

Source: HD.com When grow bags are placed directly on the ground, or in makeshift setups, each irrigation leaves part of the management process uncontrolled: drainage is lost, moisture accumulates, walkways become dirtier, recirculation capacity is reduced, and the system becomes less suited to precise operation. Second, a poorly drained

Ridder and Aranet enhance data-driven growing with updated integration

Source: HD.com By bringing wireless sensor data from Aranet directly into the Ridder platform, growers now benefit from a single, central environment for monitoring and analyzing key climate and crop parameters. This integration enables growers to collect, visualize, and analyze all important greenhouse and crop data in one central