The European project ICaRE4Farms, funded by the INTERREG ENO programme (North West Europe), is composed of 8 partners from 5 different countries who are working together for 4 years to promote the use of solar thermal energy in North West Europe in the agricultural sector. During this project, 4 pilot sites will be equipped with solar thermal systems, one each in France, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.

This innovative solar thermal device was developed by the company of Mayenne Fengtech, whose creation was assisted by the Laval Mayenne Technopole incubator. This innovative solar thermal device was developed by the Mayenne company Fengtech, whose creation was assisted by the Laval Mayenne Technopole incubator. This innovative company develops solar thermal systems for professional use. The specificity of this equipment is a very high performance making the device interesting and adapted to the climatic conditions of the territories benefiting from little sunshine, changing and cloudy weather, such as those of North-West Europe. The innovation of the product also lies in its integration of extraction, storage and use. They are also approved as low temperature (less than 100°C) and very low pressure systems.

Therefore, the ICaRE4Farms project aims to validate and promote this new technology in 4 agricultural sectors requiring hot water for cattle feeding (calves) or cleaning and pasteurisation (dairy farms), for heating farm buildings (pigs) and greenhouses (horticulture).