December 2019 - Adapt2Change

Α) Identity of the project

Description/Aim

Water shortage and water pollution are environmental threats affecting large parts of EU. Climate change is expected to enhance the impact of the said threats. The project introduces an innovative approach, demonstrated by newly constructed prototype greenhouses, to minimize water demand in the agricultural sector and to reduce energy demand and pollution caused by the agricultural practices.
The “Adapt2change” innovative approach can be implemented practically everywhere as it is based on the exploitation of shallow geothermal energy. The project provides to the farmers and other key stakeholders the means to battle water shortage and high energy demand in a sustainable way, while ensuring agricultural production and income.

Β) Best Practices

For the project’s demonstration needs two greenhouses (prototype and control unit) were established at the experimental station of the Agricultural Research Institute at Zygi (CY) and inside the TEI of Thessaly campus in Larisa (GR). The project introduced the shallow geothermal energy and made its attributes and characteristics widely known, improving the views of the agricultural community towards the efficiency of renewable energy sources in the greenhouse sector. The prototype greenhouses were autonomously and remotely operated by both a programmable logic computer and an automation industrial computer centre that were designed and developed to work in parallel.

As a result, the project demonstrated that the water, energy, carbon, pesticide and fertilizer footprint is possible to be minimized in order to comply with the current and future environmental, social and financial regulations, and in the same time improve competitiveness and preserve the rural heritage.

C) Results

Key project outputs were the analytical greenhouse plans that were submitted free-for-use to the public - despite their novel character -, the guides for greenhouse - water recycling system design and implementation, the shallow geothermal application manual for greenhouse agriculture, the environmental friendly agriculture production guide, the guide on automation control and design, the guide on sustainable water use for greenhouse horticulture, the cultivation guides, the environmental achievements guide, the remote assistance guide for agricultural production, the proposal for agricultural policy reformation in respect of projects findings on water recycling and the technical-economic assessment report.

In quantitative terms the “Adapt2change” results are considered significant; “Adapt2change” practically demonstrated that working as a closed hydroponic system the prototype greenhouse reduced water consumption by up to 45% compared to the control greenhouses. This reduction may reach up to 70%, compared to open field cultivation practices and considering the additional water retention systems that were installed inside and outside the prototype greenhouses (i.e. rain-water re-circulation systems), the water re-use that was reached, in some cases, was 100%.

The mean energy reduction (Kwhe) for the 6 cultivation periods was 67% for Larisa (GR) and 63 % for Zygi (CY) comparing the prototype greenhouse with the control greenhouses. Further, the mean CO2 emissions reduction for the 6 cultivation periods was 46% for Larisa (GR) and 52 % for Zygi (CY) comparing the prototype greenhouses with the control greenhouses. The use of fertilizers was reduced by approximately 30% compared to an open hydroponic system; this reduction can reach and surpass 60% compared to open field cultivation practices.

The results are available to all stakeholders (e.g. greenhouse constructors, farmers, etc.), as technical (https://medgreenhouses.interreg-med.eu/)details and designs are available on the project website
(e.g. https://www.adapt2change.org/en/deliverables/prototype-greenhouse-plans).

The project results are currently capitalized by the MED Greenhouses project (https://medgreenhouses.interreg-med.eu/), which builds on both the Adapt2change's knowledge as well as on other relevant environmental projects in the agricultural sector.