Australia: agrivoltaics over the vineyard

Australia’s vineyards are enduring hotter summers every year. In a heatwave the skin of a ripening grape climbs past 40°C, and Chardonnay can sunburn after just five minutes at 40 to 43°C. With drought and bushfire smoke on top, the 2026 crush was Australia’s smallest since 2000. Vitivoltaics, which shades the vines and turns that shade into electricity, is a climate-adaptation technology whose trials the industry’s research body, Wine Australia, is funding.

Designed around the vine

ENVELOPS raises the panels high above the vine rows and designs the structure so that a grape harvester passes straight underneath. SAMS changes the panel angle with the growth stage and the weather, deepening the shade in a heatwave and letting light back in as the fruit ripens. The pilot is planned to go up while the vines are dormant in winter, so that not a single vintage is lost.

Next

A winery and site in New South Wales are being chosen for the pilot. With growers, we are designing a model in which the farm either owns the plant or supplies power to the winery, so that the vineyard keeps farming and gains a second income. It is a way to keep the same wine coming from the same vineyard as the climate changes.