Hanwha brings its technology to beehives

Hanwha has developed an electronic beehive powered by the sun to help maintain the bee population.

Hanwha's electronic beehive machines equipped with solar panels are on display. [HANWHA]

Hanwha has developed an electronic beehive powered by the sun to help maintain the bee population.

The device, dubbed Solar Beehive, is designed to optimize the environment in a bee colony by controlling temperature, moisture, water and food.

The system has two parts: the internal hive that manages living conditions for bees and an external structure that provides electricity from photovoltaic panels. Conditions can be adjusted through an app.

Bees are about to be placed in the Solar Beehive. [HANWHA]

As a pilot program, Hanwha installed the Solar Beehive at the Korea National University of Agriculture and Fisheries (KNUAF). “About 40,000 bees that live in the Solar Beehive will help pollinate the fruit trees on campus and vegetation in nearby wooded areas,” Hanwha said in a statement.

The company believes that the system could help sustain the bee population by providing an optimized environment. “The Solar Beehive will effectively increase the bee population and preserve the species, as it can monitor the growth of the bees in real time and detect diseases and pests immediately,” professor Hye-Kyung Kim of the Department of Industrial Entomology at the KNUAF said in the statement.

The population and diversity of bee colonies have been collapsing in many parts of the world, primarily because of climate change and chemical pollution.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]