The European agricultural industry is currently facing a complex set of challenges, ranging from rising costs, uncertainties around income, and access to land, to the impacts of climate change, water scarcity, and other environmental challenges. These combined challenges shed a light on the need to develop innovative solutions to enhance the resilience and sustainability of agricultural sector in Europe.
The European Commission has made it a priority to strengthen the competitiveness, resilience, and sustainability of the agricultural sector. Building on the recommendations of the Strategic Dialogue, the Commission is expected to prepare a Vision for Agriculture and Food in the first 100 days of its new mandate, likely in the first quarter of 2025.
This handbook, therefore, comes at a pertinent time, highlighting the decade-long experience that the solar PV sector has developed on agrisolar, working hand-in-hand with the agricultural sector.
This handbook describes the different archetypes, incorporating the business cases, as well as agricultural and environmental considerations, and includes real-life examples and data on the added economic, social, or environmental value of agrisolar to farms across Europe. It also assesses different types of ownership structures, and how these structures can create added revenue and overall value for the farm and farmland.
Agrisolar is a win-win-win for the farming sector, the energy sector and society at large.
- Agrisolar creates additional income for farmers
- Agrisolar comes with agronomic benefits for farmers.
- Agrisolar reinforces farmers’ environmental and nature restoration activities.
Agrisolar uses land more efficiently.
- By collocating an agricultural activity with a solar PV project, agrisolar allows for multiple land-use, therefore increasing the efficient use of land. Agricultural activity is maintained, in some cases with a marginal reduction of useful surface, and/or in an increase in agricultural production.
Agrisolar provides valuable experience and practices that can accelerate learning.
- Several of those projects have been developed as demonstration or pilot projects in Europe and are compiled on SolarPower Europe’s agrisolar digital map.
- These projects not only provide valuable insights into the practicalities of integrating solar energy with agriculture, but also highlight the potential for increased farm income and energy self-sufficiency.
Agrisolar business cases, agronomic implications and ecosystem services vary across different farming activities.
Agrisolar projects can be divided into broad categories:
- Elevated Agri-PV where panels are elevated above the crops or livestock thanks to the metal structures;
- Interrow Agri-PV where panels are placed vertically allowing the agricultural activity to take place in between the ‘rows’ of PV modules;
- Solar PV placed on the artificial structures, such as agricultural buildings, rooftops or greenhouses, where, depending on the type of structure, either traditional modules or flexible modules in films are used. Based on these broad categories, this handbook defines 10 archetypes, reflecting the Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations (FAO) agricultural land classification, and maps out solar PV configurations that can be applied to the relevant farming activities.
Agrisolar Handbook
This handbook serves as a resource for stakeholders interested in agrisolar, providing information on best practices, regulatory considerations, and case studies. By leveraging the potential of agrisolar, the agricultural sector can contribute to the transition to renewable energy, while enhancing its own sustainability and resilience.
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