Greece’s Central Union of Municipalities wants to cover irrigation canals with solar collectors

The possibility of turning the irrigation canals of Greece into solar collector routes is now being put forward by the competent Committee for Rural Development of the Central Union of Municipalities-KEDE. In this way Municipalities want to utilize areas that have already been taken out of production, but at the same time not to further sacrifice highly productive land .

Especially with regard to plots under cultivation, irrigation and drainage canals occupy an area exceeding 6% of the farms, which means that only in the areas that have been cultivated there are thousands of hectares unexploited during this period to be used for energy production.

It is characteristic that in the prefecture of Fthiotida, both in the area of ​​Domokos and in the wider area of ​​the Lamia plain, thousands of hectares have been reserved to install photovoltaics and are waiting their turn until the procedures are completed and the necessary networks are made to receive them.

The chairman of the competent committee Dimitris Tzachristas noted the possibility of immediately utilizing thousands of hectares, which are the irrigation canals that are 10 to 15 meters wide and many kilometers long allowing use of medium and high productivity land.

Photovoltaic parks

In recent years, an intense dialogue has developed, especially regarding the use of medium and high productivity land in the direction of developing photovoltaic parks. There are enough voices which can be heard even from official lips to stop this tactic and to limit the waste of mainly highly productive land.

The particularly high rents and also particularly high prices for the purchase of such land, paid mainly by investment companies that want to expand in the photovoltaic sector, essentially continuously reduce available highly productive land, while at the same time the placement of such systems in forested areas limits the expansion of livestock facilities.

At the same time, urbanization has forced many households to leave the fields in their villages, which are still used for production through renting to other farmers.

For at least 5 years, the demand for photovoltaic installations has been huge, with the result that the entire plain has been filled with mirrors.

According to the local authorities who participate in the competent committee, such a project will also help the energy balance, especially in Local infrastructure development units that have energy-consuming pumping stations, in municipalities that have irrigation networks, but also in any case energy can be produced that will be provided to farmers with whatever this means especially during irrigation periods where there is a particularly high demand for energy.

It will also aid land improvement organizations that are in debt due to energy to provide cheap energy and thus help the agricultural economy of entire regions. Dimitris Tzachristas, noted that until today irrigation channels remain unused, while by installing panels, in addition to saving land, you also save water and carbon dioxide emissions. “Of course, what we must not forget is that highly productive land must be protected, because it is an irreplaceable natural resource,” he concluded