EWS reports 14% higher winter wheat yield at Austrian agrivoltaic site

Austrian agrivoltaics specialist EWS has reported a 14% increase in winter wheat yield at its Sonnenfeld research site in Bruck an der Leitha compared with a control area without PV modules. The company attributes the result partly to shading and changes in the microclimate beneath its tracking PV arrays.

The result was recorded in the site’s 12-meter-wide cultivation strips during the dry summer of 2026, according to EWS. The company said partial shading from the PV modules can provide some protection for crops and soil during periods of high temperatures and affect factors including soil moisture and temperature.

The Bruck an der Leitha facility, built in 2022, is a research and demonstration project developed with the support of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU). The agrivoltaic array incorporates different row spacings to assess their impact on electricity and agricultural production. EWS said the movable module tables are installed at center-to-center distances of 8 meters, 11 meters and 14 meters in different research zones, corresponding to cultivation widths of 6 meters, 9 meters and 12 meters.

Earlier results indicate that crop response can vary with the spacing between module rows. In 2024, winter wheat yields in the 6-meter and 9-meter cultivation zones were close to those of the unshaded control area, while the 12-meter zone produced around 10% more yield, according to results published by EWS.

The company has now reported a 14% yield increase for winter wheat in the 12-meter cultivation strips in 2026 compared with the control area without PV modules. The result remains under evaluation, however. EWS said BOKU is analyzing this year’s winter wheat harvest and that the findings are expected to be incorporated into the research project’s final report, due by the end of 2026.

EWS noted that agricultural yields depend on multiple factors and that longer-term research is still needed to establish the effects of agrivoltaics. Site characteristics, crop type, weather conditions and soil compaction during construction can all influence results.

The system uses trackers that follow the sun during normal operation. For agricultural work, farmers can move the modules into a horizontal position. During harvesting, the module rows can also be tilted away from each other by up to 70 degrees to provide clearance for agricultural machinery. EWS says its tracker rows can reach heights of up to 2.8 meters.

The company is also operating an agrivoltaic facility in Pischelsdorf am Engelbach, Upper Austria. The 4.58 MW project allocates around 80% of its area to agriculture, 18% to biodiversity measures such as flower strips, bee pastures and fallow areas, and 2% to PV system components. Agricultural cultivation strips are 9 meters wide.

EWS said soybeans at the Pischelsdorf site developed well during the particularly dry summer of 2026, along with the site’s biodiversity areas. The company attributed this partly to protection from intense solar radiation provided by the elevated PV modules. It has not yet published soybean yield data, however, so the effect of the system on the harvest remains to be determined.

The post appeared first on pv magazine Global.