Energy Efficiency Strategies for Ecological Greenhouses: Experiences from Murcia (Spain)

Hilario Becerril and Ignacio De los Rios
Additional contact information
Hilario Becerril: Area de Ciencias Sociales. Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Tabasco, México. Periferico Carlos A. Molina S/N, Cardenas 86500, Tabasco, Mexico
Ignacio De los Rios: Agroforestry Engineering Department, School of Agricultural, Food and Biosystems Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Av. Puerta de Hierro No. 2 CP, Madrid 28040, Spain

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-23

Abstract: There has been a continuous growth in ecological agriculture (EA) in recent years. It is recognized as a production system with rational energy use and low demand for fossil fuels. There are many studies relating to this subject, in contrast to the few studies regarding the use of energy and its impact on the environment in ecological greenhouses. This article analyzes the strategies adopted by a Transformational Agricultural Society (Sociedad Agraria de Transformación) in order to improve energy efficiency in ecological greenhouses, with regards to the use of fossil fuels. The methodology is based on the Working With People (WWP) Model, which involves social learning processes over 30 years in one of the largest regions of ecological crops in Spain. The results show that the measures taken to manage the greenhouses have achieved a decrease of over 80% in terms of fossil fuel consumption. The experience demonstrates that EA, as opposed to conventional agriculture (CA), is a system with great potential when it comes to reducing energy consumption and environmental improvements through various strategies.

Keywords: Transformational Agricultural Society; ecological agriculture (EA); conventional agriculture (CA); greenhouses; fossil fuels; renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/11/866/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/11/866/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:9:y:2016:i:11:p:866-:d:81322

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().