AgriPV

The Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (Enea) will soon release an online map to identify suitable sites for agrivoltaics. The map, based on landscape indicators, will provide qualitative and quantitative information to facilitate the selection of appropriate locations for the integration of agriculture and solar energy.

Bear Valley Solar will deploy 240 kW of a 1.5 MW cattle-sited solar field pasture this year, with the first phase of construction ramping up this summer, developer David McFeeters-Krone told pv magazine USA.

Swiss startup Insolight said that it has finished a new agrivoltaic pilot project in Lucerne, Switzerland. It said it will monitor the facility for three years to assess PV performance and its impact on agriculture.

SolarPower Europe’s new guidelines for agrivoltaics are designed to support project developers, scientific institutions, and policymakers in developing agrivoltaic schemes. The PV trade body presents business cases from different European countries and shares best practices for O&M and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC).

The Italian cabinet has approved 13 agrivoltaic projects in the southern regions of Apulia and Basilicata.

Dan French, executive producer of the Solar Farm Summit, told pv magazine USA that more than 500 farmers, manufacturers, and community solar developers likely attended the first US agrivoltaics conference in Chicago last week.

New Zealand government-owned Genesis Energy and renewables partner FRV Australia have purchased an advanced 52 MW agrivoltaic solar project on New Zealand’s South Island. If the project meets its 2024 operational target as anticipated, it will be the country’s first utility-scale solar farm.

Makoto Tajima, an agrivoltaics analyst for Japan’s Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP), speaks to pv magazine about the growth of agricultural PV in Japan, as well as cost considerations and the pace of technological development.

French specialist Sun’Agri unveiled the agronomic results on a crop of eggplant grown in a greenhouse commissioned in the Lot-et-Garonne in September, 2020.

French solar developer TSE, in association with Alliance BFC, has unveiled the initial results of a pilot study in France on how solar panels can affect soybean growth.