‘Searching for a form that fits with a society that already seeks solutions of its own in permaculture, local production, renewable materials and shared ownership.’
In the coming years, we will see space created on the riparian slopes by the shift from animal feed to food production for humans. In this new arable landscape, “the Zonnekever,” as a temporary and idiosyncratic energy-generating element, moves with the seasons and years. The Solar Beetle thus connects to the desire for preservation of a small-scale and varied recreational landscape until a new generation of integrated energy generation emerges.
We want solar panels and setups that fit into the beloved riparian landscape. For this we need to associate them not with a machine, but with the animal, so they can join the herds of sheep, cows and llamas. We want fair panels, European produced and recyclable. We do not want monoculture, but solar panels that support crop farming. Finally, we want panels that play with their colors to enhance the landscape experience.
The challenge
What will the landscape on the embankments between IJsselstein and Montfoort look like if there are solar panels? How can a landscape with solar panels be a landscape you long for? The municipality of IJsselstein would like to produce 35-45 GWh on the embankments. That roughly means a space requirement of 50 hectares of solar panels. How many hectares can the landscape absorb and retain its charm? What spatial measures stimulate an attractive landscape for recreationists?
Design
In the coming years, we see a gradual change in which livestock farming on the riparian slopes and animal feed production shifts to small-scale arable farming. This will create space for a relocatable energy generation concept. The complete transformation to arable farming will be gradual. We envision this in three steps. In step one we combine elements of current livestock farming. In step two with the emergence of strip farming. The third stage is in about thirty years when solar fields are no longer needed for sustainable energy generation and everything around us is generating energy. Think of all houses, roads, products and even human clothing. The research provides as a concrete result a new type of solar panel that can be deployed in the period of two to thirty years. Design principles are: malleability and possibilities for product integrated, lightweight, movability, recyclable, colorable.
Next steps and recommendations
Currently, the riparian area is zoned for cattle ranching, and that doesn’t just change to arable farming. Livestock farmers are different farmers than arable farmers. Still, we think in the future this area is destined for arable farming and crop rotation, high and dry in a wet peat meadow landscape. Solar beetle fits into crop rotation. As a first application of the elements, a form of crop rotation can already take place in dairy farming. The panels are then placed on pastures that need to rest after grazing. In the winter months, they are on fallow cattle feed production fields.
A start of the change could be that a cooperative (e.g., Herenboeren) gets permission to start growing crops with direct delivery to participants. Solar beetles can play a role in this. Then, step by step, land use can change. This will create a varied, more natural and healthier landscape as a backdrop for recreation.
Network and ownership. Initially, the livestock farmer manages the panels and the farm has a battery for storage. This may be connected to the national energy grid (link to IJsselstein) or supply to immediate neighbors. The farmer either owns the panels or manages the panels.
Team composition:
DS, Solarix, Theo Heldens, and input from Stijn Dries
Client:
AORTA, five Lopikerwaard municipalities, PARK and MooiSticht, made possible in part by Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie
