Italy’s energy management agency Gestore dei Servizi Energetici (GSE) has awarded €770.4 million (US$863.6 million) in grant funding to 505MW of new rooftop solar capacity, to be deployed on agricultural projects.
Announced last week, the funding will go towards 7,409 projects and represents the maximum amount of funding GSE had made available for the initiative. Further applications were made for a total of US$1.95 billion worth of projects, with a combined capacity of over 554MW, but these were rejected as the projects were deemed ineligible for funding and the GSE had reached the limit of funding for the scheme.
Try Premium for just $1
- Full premium access for the first month at only $1
- Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
- Cancel anytime during the trial period
Premium Benefits
- Expert industry analysis and interviews
- Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
- Exclusive event discounts
Or get the full Premium subscription right away
Or continue reading this article for free
While GSE did not provide details on the reason for specific projects being deemed ineligible, it said on LinkedIn that applications were made where “documentation does not allow you to verify the admission requirements”. The agency added that it currently has no plans to provide further assistance for projects that were denied funding in this round.
The successful projects are all of very small scale—the largest to receive funding has a capacity of 1MW—and reflects growth in the distributed solar sector in Italy; figures from trade body Italia Solare show that commercial and industrial (C&I) deployments in Italy increased by 24% between the first quarter of 2025 and 2026, while utility-scale additions decreased by 9%. However, the picture was not one of straightforward growth, as residential solar installations fell 13% year-on-year.
There is clearer growth in Italy’s agrivoltaics (agriPV) sector, which is demonstrated by the latest round of GSE funding. The funding was awarded through the Ministry of Agriculture’s Parco Agrisolare facility, which initially took the form of three investment rounds between 2022 and 2024 to fund 1.3GW of new solar PV facilities at agricultural projects. A fourth round was reopened earlier this year, and GSE made its decision on the successful bids in August, ahead of last week’s announcement.
Italy’s current commitment to agriPV follows a ban on the practice in 2024 and the ban’s subsequent repeal the following year, and has led to growth in larger-scale agriPV deployments. Last month, independent power producer (IPP) Nadara started commercial operations at the 227MW Big Fish agriPV project in Sicily, the largest in the country.
The news follows the completion of the final allocation under the government’s FER X decree, which aims to provide support for 37.15GW of new renewable energy capacity deployments, of which 10GW will be solar PV.
