• The community agrivoltaic vineyard is the idea of a group of entrepreneurs to produce wine while also generating renewable energy.
• The vines are grown beneath a photovoltaic installation that protects the plants from extreme weather events, increasing yields and making the best use of natural resources.
• According to the project's proponents, the land is used twice over, generating environmental, economic and social benefits.

Inaugurated in Puglia, in Gioia del Colle, at the end of 2023 and the fruit of 15 years of research and experimentation, the community agrivoltaic vineyard is a project that, for the first time, combines the production of organic wine with that of clean, renewable energy, with agronomic, economic and social benefits.

The birth in Puglia of the first community agrivoltaic vineyard

The idea came from a group of partners (Nicola Mele and Emilio Roggero among them) who in 2008 decided to invest in renewable energy production from photovoltaics, installing a 1-megawatt system across 6 hectares of land: "The first challenge of this investment was precisely to avoid using the land solely for energy production," explains agricultural entrepreneur Donato Giorgio. "So the insight was to raise the photovoltaic array on a pergola, at a height of just over 2 metres, with the intention of one day growing something underneath it."

Installation of the photovoltaic array was completed in 2010 and, in collaboration with the Universities of Verona and Bari and the Basile Caramia agricultural research, experimentation and training centre in Locorotondo, experimentation with various crops beneath the panels began, ultimately yielding excellent results for certain grape varieties. Among them Falanghina, Traminer and Primitivo di Gioia del Colle.

Solar panels become pergolas for the vines: production and environmental benefits

"The vine rows are made up of the poles supporting the panels. Across 4.5 hectares of the plot the plants are shaded by the panels, while on a further hectare or so they are uncovered. In this way we are able to make a direct comparison of the effects of agrivoltaics. First of all, the panels physically protect the plants from excessive heat and solar radiation and from extreme events such as hailstorms. Furthermore, beneath the photovoltaic panels a microclimate is created that keeps the soil more humid, less in need of water, and that spares the plants from water stress in an area prone to drought like ours, the Murgia. The vine is less exposed to disease, thus avoiding the use of chemical substances and favouring organic production."

Giorgio continues: "The vine yield is 500 g of grapes for plants exposed to the sun, whereas it rises to 4 kilograms of grapes for plants under the panels. The latter, moreover, thanks to the partial shading of the agrivoltaic pergola, undergo a slower phenolic ripening, yielding wines that are more acidic, less sugary and lower in alcohol. We have succeeded in producing Traminer, a grape variety characteristic of the north, while the agrivoltaic Primitivo di Gioia del Colle surprises with characteristics very different from those of wine produced traditionally from plants grown in full sun."

The agrivoltaic installation is equipped with sensors that monitor leaf condition, soil moisture and wind variations to allow targeted interventions, as well as a rainwater harvesting system that collects water for use in irrigation.

The economic and social benefits of the project

In addition to the production and resource-use benefits, agrivoltaics also brings economic advantages: "In agriculture there is no certainty of income because production is subject to the climate, whereas renewable energy production for the farm becomes the only reliable source of income, allowing more stable agronomic business plans to be developed."

The project also has a strong social dimension: "We started out as five and now we are more than 40 partners, agricultural entrepreneurs and others, including the people and companies in our Happy Network, which incubated the community agrivoltaic vineyard project. The aim is to bring together all the forces of the community to increase our capacity to seize opportunities such as the funds from the agrivoltaic decree and to bring value to the area," explains Giorgio.

Land take? "No, land used twice over"

While it is true that for some people agrivoltaics is a controversial system given the question of land take, Giorgio replies: "We can say that the poles occupy less than 5 per cent of the land and that in our view the land is not being taken up, but used twice over. We believe that when agrivoltaics is woven around agronomic projects of genuine value, it brings only benefits."

Now in the pipeline is the construction, again in Puglia, of a 5-megawatt photovoltaic array across 9 hectares of vineyard to bring grape variety production up to full capacity and make it possible to bring the first agrivoltaic wine to market in 2026 through the e-commerce platform I prodotti della svolta, which markets products from sustainable agriculture.