Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida and Environment and Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin jointly presented the planned new regulations this week. Accordingly, the construction of solar parks with modules installed close to the ground on agricultural land will be banned nationwide in Italy.
“We wanted to regulate the use of photovoltaic panels, and we believe that the land serves to produce and energy production must be compatible with agricultural production,” said Minister of Agriculture Lollobrigida.
Agri-PV systems possible
Agri-PV systems where agricultural use of the land is still possible are still permitted under the planned new regulation. Projects that are already in the approval phase are also exempt from the new regulations.
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In addition, according to the government's plans, it is still permissible to erect ground-mounted PV systems in quarries, mines, areas under concession to the state railway, areas under concession to airport concessionaires, areas protecting the motorway strip, and areas inside industrial plants.
Planned regulations now discussed in parliament
The ball is now in the court of the two chambers of parliament, which will discuss the government package and can still amend it.
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Criticism came from Italia Solare. According to the industry association, the new regulation proposed by the government is an unnecessary restriction on photovoltaic installations on agricultural land. “One percent of unoccupied agricultural land is enough to realize 50 percent of the 50 GW required to meet the 2030 targets with ground-mounted systems, the remaining 50 percent can be installed on rooftops. Agriculture and PV can coexist nicely with crops between rows of PV modules,” wrote Italia Solar in a letter to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. (hcn)
