Application of new technologies towards reducing the carbon footprint in intensive horticultural farms in Galicia

This Operational Group was created with the aim of using renewable energies and alternative technologies that lead to a reduction in energy costs and an improvement in productivity, provided that the investments are affordable for the farms and increase their profitability. To do this, it is necessary to use renewable energies that increase the productivity of the greenhouses and reduce the carbon footprint.

Depending on the innovative action, an alternative will be used: for temperature control, heated air will be used, both in the soil and in the greenhouse air, with a mixed renewable energy system of geothermal and photovoltaic energy, improving the farm's income by allowing the production of vegetables in the winter while maintaining a low-carbon economy; to maintain the productive rhythm in the months of less solar incidence and improve competitiveness, new solar self-illumination technologies with an optimal chromatic range and low consumption will be used; to reduce phytosanitary products, soil disinfection will be carried out by infiltration of ozone of variable intensity and treatments against fungi and bacteria by means of germicidal light that could be either static or dynamic; to reduce the consumption of synthetic fertilizers, ionized water will be used in order to accelerate the availability of nutrients from the organic fraction of the soil, improving fertilizer management on farms.