• Energy Research

The climate change that plagues the world is causing extended periods of water shortage. This situation is forcing farmers in the region of Murcia in Spain to modernize their irrigation systems to optimize use of the scarce water they have and seek a circular water economy using the recovered water. Moreover, an associated problem is the need for energy that these facilities require in order to pressurize the required water. The use of photovoltaic generation contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Food produced in this region tends to have guaranteed markets in Europe and, geographically, due to the high quality of phytosanitary controls and traceability during their marketing, their optimal cultivation, and selection and labelling is verified, specifying valuable information such as: collection date, origin, the use of organic fertilizers among others. To maintain market access, it is important to continue implementing other environmental improvements, i.e., reductions in either hydro or carbon footprints. Previous studies have failed to include the prospect of environmental use of isolated facilities to replace existing consumption, seeking the monetarization of the facility as well as prioritizing the reduction of GHG. Previous studies have failed to include the perspective of environmental use of isolated photovoltaic installations, based on existing consumption, thus, going beyond the monetarization of the facility, to prioritize the reduction of GHG applied in practice by environmentally sensitized farmers. This study was conducted in an existing facility with great technical complexity and three different sources of water supply, over 1500 plots and an altitude range in plots and reservoirs of more than 400 m.

This paper reveals reductions of up to 485 t CO2 eq (CO2 equivalent) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of energy origin associated with the water-energy binomial which can be achieved after modernizing and automating a Water User Association (WUA) of over 1780 users with microplots in a total area of 775 ha in southeastern Spain. This case study aims to show how the latest advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) for precision agriculture are being applied efficiently with the implementation of a Smart Agri system, capable of making improvements through the use of renewable energies (64.49% of the total CO2e- avoided), automation in irrigation water management, by applying adequate governance, use of ICTs (731,014 m3 per water footprint reduction with 20.41% of total CO2 eq of associated electrical origin), hydraulic improvements (283,995 m3 per water footprint reduction, 13.77% of the total CO2 eq of associated electrical origin) and reduction of evaporation in reservoirs (26,022 m3 of water by water footprint reduction with 1.33% of the total CO2 eq electrical origin avoided) that act as batteries to accumulate the daily solar energy and enable watering at night, when irrigation is most efficient. It is important to consider the valuable contribution of these artificial green lungs, not only in terms of food for the European Union, but also as a CO2 eq sink that supports the planet’s GHGs. As shown in this study, this is made possible by the joint governance led by the Water Users Association (WUA) and co-led by different management organizations with the support of ICT.