• Agrivoltaics is a system that combines renewable energy production and agriculture, optimising land use.
• Research from the Politecnico di Milano found that between 22 and 35 per cent of non-irrigated agricultural land could simultaneously host solar panels and crops.
• This coexistence would increase agricultural productivity and photovoltaic efficiency.

The coexistence of photovoltaic panels and agricultural crops is possible and can help resolve the global conflict over land use: this is the conclusion of a study from the Politecnico di Milano, authored by researchers Maddalena Curioni, Nikolas Galli, Giampaolo Manzolini and Maria Cristina Rulli from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Energy, and published in the journal Earth's Future.

The study started from the premise that, as demand for renewable energy grows and the need to produce ever more food increases, pressure on arable land is mounting: today, between 13 and 16 per cent of ground-mounted photovoltaic installations occupy land that was previously agricultural, and agriculture and energy often compete for the same space.

The sustainable potential of agrivoltaics for integrating food and energy production

As a solution to this conflict and to integrate two fundamental needs, the research estimated that between 22 and 35 per cent of non-irrigated agricultural land, globally, could host agrivoltaic systems while continuing to produce food. To reach these conclusions, the researchers used a model to simulate the response of 22 crops to the reduction in solar radiation caused by the panels. The model made it possible to assess the potential crop yield across different climates and geographical areas, providing a global map of possible agrivoltaic applications.

"Agrivoltaics cannot be applied everywhere, but according to our results there are many areas of the world where it would be possible to combine crops and energy production without significant yield losses," said Nikolas Galli, researcher at the Glob3Science Lab and co-author of the study.

The study also shows that this coexistence can increase overall productivity per square metre, reduce costs and improve the efficiency of photovoltaic installations thanks to the presence of crops. According to the researchers, agrivoltaics could therefore help reduce competition for land, while simultaneously improving the sustainability of both agricultural and energy systems.