European agro-industries go green

In energy intensive industries the potential for renewable energy to reduce costs and emissions is significant. 

In Spain, we’ve delivered a ground-breaking project with the Pastores Grupo Cooperativo – one of the country’s largest sheep farming cooperatives.  

Part of the European Commission’s SCOoPE project, it aims to transfer good practices and energy efficiency to European agro-industries; especially cooperatives. It is BayWa r.e’s first self-consumption commercial and industrial (C&I) project in Spain, and is one of the first for the country.

We were approached by the Pastores Grupo Cooperativo and Cooperativas agro-alimentarias Aragón to design a PV system for one of its major processing facilities in Zaragoza.  

Spain has some of the most complex renewable energy legislation in Europe, but through our framework of legal advisors and inhouse expertise we were able to secure the project’s future.

Our expertise in solar energy, coupled with BayWa’s 100-year track record in agriculture, made us the ideal partner for Pastores Grupo Cooperativo.

We worked closely with Cooperativas agro-alimentarias de España, to design and develop a specialist PV solution for farming and food processing companies that has turned unutilised rooftops into green power, saving energy and reducing costs. 

Paired with our award winning novetegra roof mounting system, 960 highly efficient photovoltaic panels were installed in under six weeks. 

From start to finish, the installation was completed in under two months and delivered by BayWa r.e.’s construction partner, SUD Energies Renovables. 

Thanks to BayWa r.e., the cooperative now has a 288 KW rooftop PV installation, with 100 percent of the power being used by its lamb processing facility.

One of Spain’s first ever self-consumption C&I solar energy installations, it will now save the Pastores Grupo Cooperativo a projected €700,000 over 25 years on their energy costs and will reduce CO₂ by up to 22,640 tonnes per year. A major step forward for the SCOoPE project and Spain’s photovoltaic sector.