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Mafie ● ResistenzeBeni confiscati, servono trasparenza e cooperazione
3 marzo 2025
Combining agriculture and energy production is a process that requires time and expertise. It begins with an understanding of the land, complemented by engineering skills necessary for developing photovoltaic systems. Agrivoltaics is not merely the sum of two income-generating methods; it seeks an optimal balance between two seemingly distant worlds. “It’s essential to have the right skills for both sectors,” say Claudio Campanella and Donato Giorgio from lavialibera, as they stroll alongside the rows covered by panels at the community agrivoltaic vineyard in Laterza (Ta). With a decade-long field experimentation project, they view this as an investment focused on the quality of cultivated products and environmental sustainability. In Italy, there will be more companies like Claudio and Donato's, especially given the substantial funding from the Ministry of the Environment and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). However, challenges remain, including bureaucratic hurdles, regulatory uncertainty, and the risk that agrivoltaics could become a ground for speculation.
The term has gained widespread usage in recent years. According to the Accademia della Crusca, agrivoltaics refers to systems that allow “the simultaneous use of the same land for agricultural activities and for electricity production through photovoltaic panels.” The entire sector focused on developing technologies for this practice has adopted the same name.
In Italy, the first agrivoltaic experiences date back to 2010, but it is only in recent years that politics has started to regulate the sector, acknowledging its specificity compared to simple photovoltaic systems in agricultural areas. In 2022, the Ministry of the Environment published “guidelines for agrivoltaic systems,” distinguishing three types of systems with different requirements:
In 2021, agrivoltaics was included among the investment items of the PNRR. The goal: to install systems with a total capacity of at least 1.04 GW and an indicative annual production of 1,300 GWh to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 0.8 million tons.
It took another three years for intentions to turn into concrete measures: in December 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture approved the “agrivoltaic decree,” allocating €1.1 billion for incentives and defining the conditions for accessing them. This involves “experimental agrivoltaic systems,” which require the installation of elevated modules and monitoring systems for the impact on agricultural or pastoral activity, water savings, soil fertility, microclimate, and resilience to climate change.
Eligible operators, who must be agricultural enterprises, either individually or in association, are guaranteed a contribution covering up to 40% of installation and management costs and a reduced rate for electricity fed into the grid. The call opened last June and closed in September with 643 submitted projects. Of these, 540 were declared eligible by the ministry, totaling 1.5 million kW of capacity. Necessary checks for granting are currently underway, with a deadline for operation set for June 30, 2026.
“Italy is in an excellent position to become a laboratory on an international level and certainly in Europe, where we are already considered one of the leading countries alongside France and Germany,” explains researcher Alessandra Scognamiglio, president of the Italian Sustainable Agrivoltaics Association (AIAS) and head of the Agrivoltaics Action Group at the International Energy Agency since last June. “We are now in a phase where, after a period of significant activity generated by the launch of the PNRR call, projects that were previously just on paper must become a reality, revealing all the complexities involved.”
Among the difficulties are those related to bureaucracy: “Our members report a series of procedural obstacles – Scognamiglio continues – related to understanding some aspects of the operational guidelines and adherence to the call's requests, such as calculation metrics. But I believe the greatest challenge is to build trust and awareness in agrivoltaics, to convey that it is a different approach from ground-mounted photovoltaics, it is feasible, and it has significant potential regarding agriculture's resilience to climate change. The key is to assign agricultural production a value that goes beyond market value and transfer it to the community so that it is perceived and accepted.”
“We have seen attempts to label systems as agrivoltaic that are actually just photovoltaic on agricultural land. That’s why we wanted to add the adjective ‘sustainable’ to our association's name: for us, the approach must necessarily be systemic, integrating not only the energy and agricultural dimensions but also the landscape dimension
The challenges are evident from the growing opposition to agrivoltaic projects in various regions of Italy, from Puglia to Veneto, including Sardinia. Last September in Tuili, in the south of the island, two thousand panels destined for a new facility were set on fire. Protests, which denounce the degradation of the landscape and the risk of agrivoltaics becoming a ground for speculation benefiting a few large energy companies, are fueled by confusion over “labels”: “We have seen attempts to label systems as agrivoltaic that are actually just photovoltaic on agricultural land,” says Scognamiglio. “That’s why we wanted to add the adjective ‘sustainable’ to our association's name: for us, the approach must necessarily be systemic, integrating not only the energy and agricultural dimensions but also the landscape dimension.”
In fact, while the 540 projects approved for the PNRR call are all enterprise-sized and managed by agricultural businesses, the Ministry of the Environment's portal for Environmental Assessments and Authorizations classifies another 1,298 projects as agrivoltaic, mostly large-scale and proposed by energy companies, which do not require monitoring systems. Lavialibera has reworked the data: the most affected regions are Sardinia, Sicily, and Puglia, with the province of Foggia recording the highest number of projects (209) and Brindisi the highest density relative to area (one project every 23 square kilometers). However, the portal does not indicate how many have received authorization and are operational, and the ministry has not responded to lavialibera's inquiries on the matter.
Agrivoltaics is also not immune to the risk of mafia interests, which affect the entire renewable sector. “Land acquisition operations by energy companies are typically classified as potentially of interest to organized crime due to historical criminal interests in the sector, and the presence of public contributions or territorial incentives represents an additional element of risk,” explains Enzo Serata, director of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Bank of Italy, to lavialibera. “Examined flows, albeit with weak signals, indicate a trend towards the concentration of this type of business in Sicily and Puglia.”
Alongside these companies is a high number of reported individuals, mainly sole proprietors, active in the agricultural and agritourism sectors.
To assist the prevention and repression system against these phenomena, Serata cites measures to prevent the misuse of public funding. First, the use of suspicious transaction reports, in close collaboration with public administration (PA). “The PA – continues the director – has managed to improve its contribution in recent times, especially given the risks associated with PNRR resources. Continuing this joint path represents an important safeguard for the proper use of public resources.”
To understand the results achieved by companies and the challenges they face, Lavialibera visited two enterprises working with the agrivoltaic system: the community agrivoltaic vineyard in Laterza (Taranto) and Le Greenhouse, the first Italian consortium of companies specialized in this type of cultivation, located in Milis (Oristano) and Scalea (Cosenza).
Claudio Campanella and Donato Giorgio are two members of the community agrivoltaic vineyard. The facility was launched between 2008 and 2011, during a period of liberalization of renewable energies in the Puglia region, especially in photovoltaics. Connection requests and a series of bureaucratic steps were necessary for the installation of solar panels. “The company Svolta – they recount to Lavialibera – decided not to use ground-mounted photovoltaics to avoid making fertile land unusable, opting instead for a solution that allows cultivation under the panels.”
The Murgia area, where the company is located, is one of the most fertile in Italy, with significantly higher yields than other regions. After experimenting with various crops, vines were identified as the most suitable for growing in the shade. “In our view – Campanella and Giorgio continue – photovoltaics help agriculture and even improve it.”
With increasing sunlight intensity, especially during certain hours of the day, plants suffer. That’s why coverage is crucial. Another aspect that distinguishes this company is the choice to include “community” in its name. “The inclusion of this term emphasizes the importance of collective participation and the enhancement of the territory,” they confirm to lavialibera.
Sharing the project helps overcome some limitations. Collaboration with the University of Bari aids in the development of crops under the panels. Activities involving families and children engage many people in various stages of plant life. The hurdle to overcome, especially considering new projects, seems to be the electricity grid, which needs to be strengthened to allow all this energy to circulate.
For Antonio Lancellotta, who grows lemons and citrons at Le Greenhouse in Scalea, agrivoltaics ensures “positive impacts on the territory, for the people who already live there and for those who wish to relocate”. According to Lancellotta, this system is democratic, as it offers the opportunity to produce clean energy. Despite the costs, especially in the initial phase, the significant advantage of this combination is the ability to “plan expenses and follow an industrial plan within the company.” The stable income from energy can indeed provide more stability for those who would otherwise depend solely on agricultural production, which can vary significantly based on weather conditions and the market prices of fruits and vegetables.
Working at the Scalea facility, which produces about 9,000 MWh of energy annually, are agronomists, electrical engineers, and electronics specialists. “Having experienced people in agriculture is increasingly difficult,” says Lancellotta. “But done correctly, agrivoltaics can ensure tradition as well as innovation.” To increase efficiency, a revamping process, meaning replacing solar panels after about 10 years of operation, has begun at the facility. This is a way to improve technology and align with nature’s rhythms, ensuring that citrons and lemons do not suffer from a lack of coverage.
In Sardinia, the fate of agrivoltaics intertwines with the heated debate on renewables, of which the island, due to its land availability and natural exposure to sun and wind, could become one of the main hubs in Europe. Last December, prompted by a popular initiative that gathered over 200,000 signatures, the Region approved an extremely restrictiveSuitable Areas Law, limiting renewable energy installations to 1% of the island's territory. At the end of January, the government challenged the law, deeming it “in conflict with national and European regulations.” A ruling from the Constitutional Court is now awaited.
This uncertainty also affects one of Le Greenhouse's other locations, which manages a citrus grove in Milis (Oristano): 80 greenhouses covered with solar panels that not only provide the electricity needed for agricultural activities and monitoring systems but also satisfy a significant portion of the town's energy needs. Here, lemons, limes, finger limes, and pompia sarda, an ancient endemic citrus fruit of the region, grow. “Agrivoltaics in greenhouses, by providing a protected and controlled environment, also helps preserve these rarer varieties,” explains Mario Lancellotta, a farmer, while showing on his smartphone the application with which he monitors the parameters of each greenhouse.
To manage such facilities, in addition to the initial investment, technical skills are required that are not needed in traditional agriculture: for this reason, Le Greenhouse has coined the term “agrivoltor.” The company has plans to expand the citrus grove in Milis and create new facilities, but the regional law “forces us to proceed with the handbrake on,” says Antonio Lancellotta, CEO of the consortium. “It’s not just our work that is slowed down, but also the dialogue and exchange of virtuous experiences with local farmers interested in this approach.”
The work was supported byJournalismfund Europe within the program Sojo Europe to stimulate more solutions/constructive journalism.
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