Italy to put €1.7 billion behind 1GW of agrivoltaics projects

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
Enel Green Power agrivoltaics plants in other regions. Image: Enel Green Power.

The Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) has issued a decree to pave the way to deploy €1.7 billion (US$1.8 billion) towards developing over 1GW of agrivoltaics (agriPV) projects.

The funding was approved by the European Commission last November and is issued predominantly through its Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), which was introduced to aid economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

MASE said that the facility would seek to finance at least 1.04GW of agrivoltaics projects across Italy, sites where solar PV generation and agricultural practice take place on the same piece of land. The planned capacity will be online by 2026.

Of the available capacity covered by the scheme, 300MW is reserved for projects of up to 1MW in size submitted by “agricultural entrepreneurs” and the remaining 740MW for projects of any size.

The RRF funding will cover up to 40% of the eligible investment costs for the planned projects, as well as offering tariffs based on the share of electricity delivered to the grid by the PV arrays.

The Italian government has leant into agrivoltaics before; in August 2022 it launched a €1.5 billion scheme to support the technology, aiming at 375MW of capacity.

Agrivoltaics has numerous benefits for both PV installations and agricultural practices. For the former, it can open up land that may otherwise have been unavailable for solar development and, in some cases, make solar projects more attractive to local communities which may otherwise have opposed them. Modules positioned above plants or crops have also been shown to operate more efficiently due to the cooling effect that evaporating water has on the underside of panels.

For the latter, it can make farmland more profitable and provide extra income for farmers and landowners. Some studies have shown that partial shading and shelter from solar modules can improve growth conditions for some plants. PV Tech Premium spoke with Jennifer Bousellot of the University of Colorado last year about these benefits as an argument for urban or rooftop agrivoltaics.  

The technology is gaining momentum and attention in the industry, particularly in Europe. The EU published research via its Joint Research Centre (JRC) in October 2023 which found that almost 1TW of agrivoltaics capacity would be possible through deployments on just 1% of current EU farmland. Previous independent research had explored agrivoltaics’ potential across the EU, but the JRC report marked the first officially backed acknowledgement of this potential.

25 November 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Large Scale Solar Central and Eastern Europe continues to be the place to leverage a network that has been made over more than 10 years, to build critical partnerships to develop solar projects throughout the region.

Read Next

August 8, 2025
This week several solar developers have raised funds for projects around the world, including BRUC in Europe, Greenalia in the US, Qair in Mauritius and CREC in Philippines.
August 8, 2025
German solar inverter manufacturer SMA Solar posted losses in the first half of 2025, as demand in the residential and corporate & industrial (C&I) solar sectors 'remains weak'.
August 8, 2025
US solar tracker manufacturer Array Technologies has posted revenue of US$362.2 million in the second quarter of this year.
August 8, 2025
German renewable energy developer ib vogt has officially broken ground on a 99MWp solar PV power plant in South Cotabato, the Philippines.
August 7, 2025
US-based floating solar (FPV) developer D3Energy is constructing a 6MW floating solar system in Monroeville – a village in Huron County, Ohio. 
August 7, 2025
Infinity Power has signed two concession agreements with the Government of Côte d'Ivoire for PV projects with a total capacity of 80MWac.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
September 16, 2025
Athens, Greece
Solar Media Events
September 30, 2025
Seattle, USA
Solar Media Events
October 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
October 2, 2025
London,UK
Solar Media Events
October 7, 2025
Manila, Philippines