The HarvRESt project has taken an important step in advancing the integration of renewable energy in agriculture by finalising its capacity building programme. Five comprehensive training modules have been developed by consortium partners, each designed to respond to the training needs identified earlier in the project and to address the practical realities of renewable energy adoption at the farm level. These modules now provide a harmonised yet flexible foundation for the training workshops that will be implemented by the Use Cases in the coming months.

The modules cover distinct but complementary areas:

• CIRCE leads the technical module, which addresses the operation, installation, and maintenance of renewable energy systems.
  
  
• BETA Technological Centre coordinates the environmental and sustainability module, focusing on ecological performance, resource management, and trade-offs.
  
  
• Climate KIC has prepared the policy module, equipping farmers with the knowledge to navigate regulatory frameworks and subsidy schemes.
  
  
• EnGreen developed the business module, supporting financial planning, investment return, and cooperative business models.
  
  
• White Research has designed the stakeholder engagement and market research module, which addresses behavioural, social, and territorial aspects of adoption.

Alongside these modules, White Research has also prepared detailed guidelines for workshop implementation, ensuring coherence in design while allowing for regional adaptation. These guidelines set out principles for logistics, timing, and reporting, while highlighting the need to conduct sessions in local languages and to embed participatory methods. In this way, the workshops will be tailored to local contexts but remain consistent with the project’s overall methodology.

The upcoming training workshops will provide opportunities for peer-to-peer learning and the exchange of practical experiences, helping farmers and rural actors to build the skills, confidence, and knowledge required to adopt renewable energy solutions.

By combining technical training with participatory and context-sensitive approaches, HarvRESt aims to move beyond the provision of information towards fostering genuine empowerment. This step marks a critical moment in the project’s trajectory, as the training workshops will not only disseminate knowledge but also create the social conditions for sustained innovation and collective action in European agriculture.

Photo: AI generated by ChatGPT