On a mountainside in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, the humid tropical air, warm sunlight, and sloping soil create highly desirable conditions for the coffee trees on Miguel Berdiel’s farm, Hacienda Berdiel Torres. The site is also optimal for growing a variety of tropical fruits, and thanks to a hydroponic greenhouse, many different vegetables and herbs.

Photo: Twende Solar

But the family-owned and run farm faced some major difficulties that curbed what should be a prosperous growing space. Puerto Rico’s potential for earthquakes and increasingly severe storms is a constant concern for its communities.

The infrastructure that would safeguard access to energy, food, and other resources can fall short, especially during weather extremes. This unreliable access to power eventually forced Hacienda Berdiel to shut down its greenhouse and hydroponics system. High costs for limited energy also hobbled the farm’s ability to invest and grow.

This mix of agricultural potential and infrastructure obstacles made Hacienda Berdiel a worthy project for Twende Solar. The Portland, OR-based, nonprofit solar installer has realized highly impactful solar projects that span the globe. Twende Solar’s exceptional ability to coordinate and organize resources has brought reliable energy to challenging and underserved locations, and with it, life-changing access to education, healthcare, jobs, and more.

This project was developed in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as part of its portfolio of agrivoltaics projects under InSPIRE. InSPIRE (Innovative Solar Practices Integrated with Rural Economies and Ecosystems) is a U.S. Department of Energy program that aims to advance agrivoltaics research and uncover the symbiosis between solar, agriculture, and land conservation.

The project is more than just a way to harness power and shelter coffee trees; it will help establish standards for designing and installing solar systems at similar sites facing comparable challenges.

The farm’s 3000-foot elevation on loose, sloping soil was a notable obstacle in and of itself, but the solar mounts would also need to support modules and ensure system reliability even in the face of severe winds, which, during storms like Hurricane Maria, can exceed 175 MPH.

Besides toughness, the system needed to deliver a delicate balance between sun and shade. All racking components would need to ensure coffee trees could thrive and crops could be nourished and harvested without obstruction. Mount height and configuration of each array needed to foster growing conditions while keeping modules at a position for optimal sun exposure in the dense tropical hillside.

After reaching out to MT Solar and working through multiple design rounds, Twende Solar configured six single-pole mounts to support the 9.8kW system using 24 QCells 410w modules. The mounts would stand securely on the hillside thanks to steel beams embedded in round concrete foundations six feet deep.

Each array is held 15 feet over the ground, allowing energy to be freely harnessed without posing any interference with growing conditions. Besides accommodating the farm’s operations, the mounts provide added benefits for coffee crops by offsetting harsh, direct sunlight and defusing wind gusts that can harm trees.

The solar mounts are engineered to withstand peak winds for the region. This hurricane-level endurance is gained through steel I-beams and additional rails. Each mount holds four 410W modules that supply power to a 40kWh battery storage, which adds additional power security and uninterrupted service during blackouts. The inverter and batteries used in the system were donated by Texas-based solar energy storage manufacturer, EG4 Electronics.

Working on the lush, soily hillside required some careful maneuvering, but an incremental approach, simplified racking assembly process, and lift-and-hoist method–completed with a single chain hoist–saw the job completed in a matter of days. The staggered grouping of mounts now filters the tropical sunlight and mountain breezes over the trees.

With the system operation, Miguel Berdiel’s hydroponic greenhouse will soon be back online and actively improving access to nutritious, locally grown food. As energy and security are gained through this project, so is guidance for similar systems. Over the next two years, researchers will monitor crop and array productivity to help establish a model for agrivoltaics in Puerto Rico and across other Caribbean islands.

The new agrivoltaics project at Hacienda Berdiel is exciting for many reasons. Testing solar and crop success at such a unique location, along with the system’s resilience against some of the toughest forces in nature, while giving a family farm and local community a stronger footing for the future, has made contributing to this solar project an exceedingly rewarding experience for MT Solar.