AgriPV regulations in Greece aim to increase projects and retain employees

“It is very important to keep people in the area,” said Stavrou, who noted that the importance of agriPV is not only in developing projects and increasing capacity, but also in keeping young people in the villages.

“It also helps to create a whole ecosystem around enabling local youth, and also older people, to be employed locally rather than moving to cities,” agreed Patrick Donati, co-founder and managing director of independent energy producer Terrawatt. “That’s incredibly important. That’s one of the main benefits we can get.”

However, Stavrou added, everything depends on “appropriate regulations for agrifotaics” in Greece, as there is currently no agriPV market in the country, although there are some projects in the pipeline that would implement agriPV elements.

Costas Caralis, country director of Hive Energy, a company developing solar technologies in Greece, agreed, noting that “currently there is no legal framework for this.”

AgriPV ban in Italy

When talking about the current state of agriPV in Southern Europe, the main concern is the recent ban on solar projects on agricultural land in Italy. “The problem we are in now is that we are in a moment of great regulatory change,” Donati said.

The new regulations only allow advanced agriPV on agricultural land, with a number of restrictions – in line with the requirements of the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) – with the agricultural company owning 51% of the company operating the solar farm, Donati explains. Given that Italian farmers tend to have limited capital resources, this will limit the deployment of larger agriPV capacities in Italy for now.

“For now, the market remains stationary until this legislative issue is resolved,” Donati explained, adding that as of 2020, almost 700 simple agriPV projects are pending environmental impact assessments.

This contrasts with the attitude of Italian farmers, who, Donati recalls, are “very enthusiastic about giving up some of their land for solar panels. Because they really need a steady income to be able to balance the unevenness of agricultural income.”

Aside from Italy’s agriPV fiasco – a ban that has some “contradictions,” as discussed last month (Premium Access) – the deployment of farmland-PV deployments continues to generate interest in the industry. So much so that agriPV was featured on the cover of PV Tech Power 34 last year (Premium Access), with an article that looked at the combination of the two industries in several countries.

While most applications for agriPV technology may have potential in the utility sector, the rooftop market can also play a key role in combining electricity and food production in urban areas.

Faster authorization process with agriPV

One of the key advantages of developing an agriPV project in Italy, until recently, was the faster process by which developers could obtain authorization to build the project, Donati explained. He noted that a 20-MW project can take one to three years to obtain authorization, while an agriPV plant of the same size can be expedited in six months.

Donati reiterated his initial position that agriPV would not only provide photovoltaic power plants in villages, but could “have a much more positive impact on local communities.”

“Creating strong and positive relationships with local stakeholders, creating jobs for local communities, means the benefits of these farms go beyond the economic benefits to anyone who is sourcing the energy,” Donati said.