Agrivoltaics in the European Energy Transition: Policy recommendations

Abstract

In response to the challenges caused by climate change, the transition towards renewable energy production is a central pillar of the European Union (EU) energy transition strategy. Despite the broad scope of energy policies, critical trade-offs such as competition for land use between energy, food production and biodiversity preservation, have largely been overlooked within the ambitious objectives outlined in the EU’s energy and climate plans (Skjærseth, 2021). The significance of energy policies for facilitating the energy transition is increasingly evident in contemporary discussions, particularly concerning the sustainable siting of solar power plants (SPP) (Moore-O’Leary et al., 2017; Pascaris, 2021). This issue is gaining relevance amid reports of controversial land use changes such as implementation of SPPs in agricultural and protected areas (Hernandez et al., 2015). The anticipated growth of SPP installations in the coming years is projected to occupy an estimated land footprint of approximately 2% of the EU territory (van de Ven et al., 2021). In light of this, agrivoltaics presents a promising dual-use approach, fostering sustainability while mitigating conflicts related to land use, by integrating photovoltaic technology with agricultural land on shared space (Oudes, van den Brink and Stremke, 2022). Given the policy-driven nature of the energy transition, the role of planning frameworks emerges as an imperative factor for the effective implementation of agrivoltaics (Pascaris, 2021).

This research presents the outcomes of a literature review exploring policy frameworks regarding agrivoltaic development and identifying prospects and challenges. The results reveal a lack of adequate attention given to agrivoltaics within existing energy policy frameworks, emphasizing the need for transformative changes in spatial planning, and identify opportunities for policy transfer from successful examples. The key outlooks, challenges and recommendations have been formulated for an agrivoltaic policy framework to propeller the integration of agrivoltaics in energy policies and expedite the energy transition.