Familia Torres reinforces its commitment to sustainability and innovation in the wine industry by participating in the SOLARWINE project, which integrates photovoltaic energy and agriculture 4.0 to promote climate-smart and more sustainable vine-growing. Agrivoltaics technology is also intended to reduce the carbon footprint and improve the resilience of vineyards to climate change, also offering economic benefits to winegrowers through the generation of renewable energy.

Familia Torres will develop one of the two pilot projects planned within the framework of Solarwine to evaluate, in a demonstrative and real way, the positive impact on viticulture of this innovative solution. The Penedès winery will carry out the trials on its Mas Rabell estate (Sant Martí Sarroca, Barcelona), in an organic vineyard that occupies an area of 1,000 m2, and will install a structure with solar panels at a height of 5 metres. The other pilot will be carried out in Castilla-La Mancha.

Since 2019, Familia Torres has already had an agrivoltaics pergola in an experimental vineyard dedicated to the study of viticultural practices to adapt to climate change. These solar panels help to delay the ripening of the grapes as they provide shade to the vines and protect them from direct sunlight during the summer. The energy they generate is destined to the Mas Rabell restaurant, which is located next to the vineyard.

In the SOLARWINE operational group, led by INNOVI, the Catalan wine cluster, Familia Torres will work for 3 years together with Huerto Tornasol and the CECV (Energy Cluster of the Comunitat Valenciana), both experts in photovoltaic self-consumption, INDEREN, a technological SME, the wine association Plataforma Tecnológica del Vino (PTV), the Catalan Institute of Vine and Wine (INCAVI) and Artica Engineering and Innovation (artica+i), as the technical office of the project.

SOLARWINE has a budget of €706,696.55 and has received funding of €599,938.89, within the framework of the Strategic Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027, financed by the Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación (MAPA) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).