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Under the sun of my home
Juan, beekeeper and owner of Miel Loramiel, works among his hives inside the Las Corchas photovoltaic plant located in the Sevillian town of Carmona.
From the photovoltaic plants of Las Corchas and Los Naranjos, in the Sevillian town of Carmona, when there is no haze, I can see my house in San José de La Rinconada. As the crow flies, just 7 kilometres separate it from my place of work. I wouldn't mind cycling, but it's not an easy route, so I do it by car, even though it adds on an extra 20 kilometres.
But what is 20 kilometres, when, in the last two decades I have barely been at home? I have visited the entire Peninsula and all the Spanish islands. It's difficult to find a corner of our country that I haven't been to for work to carry out energy assembly and distribution projects.
Juan and his son, beekeepers by vocation and owners of Miel Loramiel, check their hives inside the photovoltaic plant of Las Corchas located in the Sevillian town of Carmona.
Juan Ignacio López, fourth generation beekeeper from Loramiel, together with his son (who already represents the fifth generation), have already installed the traditional hives within the framework of the Endesa photovoltaic plant in Carmona. These hives will coexist with other smart hives, an initiative that has been promoted by Endesa under an open innovation model through two Spanish startups, Protofy and SmartBee. Thanks to the technology incorporated by Protofy and SmartBee, the hives in Endesa's photovoltaic plant have special sensors that allow us to know the temperature and humidity of the hive and remotely control its opening or closing. These smart hives are also equipped with cameras that allow you to see the activity of the bee population, and a scale to know the amount of honey that is being produced. The installed GPS technology will help to locate the hives in the event of theft.
My wife, who was then my girlfriend, came to visit me when she had a holiday from work and I went home whenever I could. When we got married and the girls were born, I missed my family more and more, but I decided to continue working hard to be able to fulfil my dream of getting a position of responsibility close to home.
That dream is now a reality. I live close to home and I enjoy my work and family, although when I turn off the television because my daughters have been watching it for a long time, they'll say things like "why did you come back", but we end up laughing together. We are happy.
Juan Ignacio López, beekeeper of Loramiel, working in the photovoltaic plant at Carmona.
Learning from sheep, bees and agrivoltaica
The dream was fulfilled a year and a half ago, when I began to supervise Las Corchas and Los Naranjos. I joined the team when the plant was still under construction. I feel very affectionately towards it, since I've been there from the start, since the implementation of the systems... They are phenomenal facilities that were made with great care and from which we now provide energy to around 50,000 homes. That is, about 120,000 people.
But our Carmona plants are much more than solar panels. When they told me I was going to have sheep at the plant, I wasn't surprised. I found the mutual help that animals lend to technology and that technology enjoys very interesting. The sheep clear the land and the panels give them shade and are in a protected area. Everyone wins.
Solar panels at the Las Corchas photovoltaic plant in the Sevillian town of Carmona.
But when they told me about bees, I was a little surprised. What do bees have to do with a solar plant? But then Juan Ignacio turned up with his son from Lora del Río, a town in the area, with his hives, his passion for these animals, and his enthusiasm for having his bees at a solar plant. It's a world I'm learning a lot from, but it's not the only one.
I'm becoming a "master" of agrivoltaic crops! "And what is that?" they asked me at home. When they explained it, I was pleasantly surprised: growing aromatic plants so that bees pollinate and do their job better.
Rosendo's sheep graze among the photovoltaic panels of the Las Corchas plant in the Sevillian town of Carmona.
The truth is that Carmona is a great restaurant for the bees of our solar apiary. They enjoy a very varied menu of flowers, from native plants, such as viper's bugloss and eucalyptus, to neighbouring crops of almond, orange and sunflower, in addition to our own aromatic herbs.
“Carmona is a great restaurant for the bees in our solar apiary. They enjoy a very varied menu of flowers, from native plants, such as viper's bugloss and eucalyptus, to neighbouring crops of almond, orange and sunflower, in addition to our own aromatic herbs”.
Rosendo's sheep graze among the photovoltaic panels of the Las Corchas plant in the Sevillian town of Carmona.
As such, the "solar honey", free of acaricides, herbicides, and any other chemical product, is very assorted: thousand-flower honey or monoflowers, such as eucalyptus, orange, thyme honey...
These projects attract a lot of attention from visitors, but also in my house. My girls ask me to send them pictures, and I do: when a sheep is born, when we put on the beekeeper's attire because we have to get closer to that area, when our plants bloom.
“My girls ask me to send them pictures, and I do: when a sheep is born, when we put on the beekeeper's attire because we have to get closer to that area, when our plants bloom”.
Rosendo's sheep graze among the photovoltaic panels of the Las Corchas plant in the Sevillian town of Carmona.
And it's all close to my home! Now my girls are looking forward to their school signing up for the visits so that they can make fun of their dad, who, after so many years, can now see them wake up every morning.
The stability that this job has given me, in addition to the professional development that working with renewable energies has provided, is amazing.
Now, all I need to do is install solar panels in my house. However, it's not that simple for me, because I would need a large investment: the orientation of the house is paramount, in addition to the roof, which wasn't built to take weight. But as they say, the shoemaker's son always goes barefoot!
Daniel Millán Padilla
Supervisor of the photovoltaic plants of Las Corchas and Los Naranjos.
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