On 5 May, 2026, APRE – Agenzia per la Promozione della Ricerca Europea and LAND – Impresa Sociale held an online co-creation workshop to identify practical support measures that can accelerate the adoption of agrivoltaics in Italy. The event has been organized with the support and participation of AIAS – Associazione Italiana Agrivoltaico Sostenibile.
Participants included agribusinesses and cooperatives, photovoltaic technology providers, energy communities and local authorities and financial institutions and investors. The session opened with a brief overview of AGRISOL’s scope, progress and national context, followed by presentations of two well-established Italian initiatives to ground the discussion in real-world experience.
Participants first validated key findings from AGRISOL’s mapping and survey work: the visual and landscape impact of agrivoltaic systems, limited public awareness, and economic uncertainties remain major obstacles to uptake. These barriers were echoed throughout the workshop and framed the co-creation activities that followed. Using interactive Miro boards, attendees worked across four dimensions — economic, technical, social, and political — to propose and prioritise concrete support measures.
Economic and financial proposals highlighted the need for targeted funding and incentives, especially for community-based projects and self-consumption schemes that can increase local benefits and improve project bankability. Stakeholders called for financial tools that lower perceived investment risk, dedicated funding for long-term agronomic research, and measures to prevent land speculation that undermines genuine agricultural value.
Technical measures focused on reducing costs and closing gaps in the APV supply chain. Participants recommended promoting commercial, ready-to-install agrivoltaic solutions and lowering the price of semi-transparent PV panels and specialised structures. Grid access emerged as a critical bottleneck: simpler, faster connection procedures and the release of unused grid slots were proposed to unblock implementable projects. Capacity-building was also prioritised, with strong support for training programmes to develop new professional profiles — the “agrivoltaic farmer” and specialised APV technicians — able to bridge agricultural and energy skills.
On the social side, the workshop emphasised communication, community engagement, and experiential learning. Field visits to existing APV sites, public events, and school outreach were proposed as effective ways to demystify agrivoltaics and build trust. Participants stressed the importance of transparent communication about both benefits and trade-offs — including lifecycle impacts and material considerations — and urged that APV projects deliver clear local value such as jobs, local supply-chain opportunities, and social amenities.
Political and governance recommendations called for clearer, coherent legislation and streamlined permitting processes. Stakeholders underlined the need for defined timelines from public authorities involved in approvals and better coordination between national and regional levels; regional identification of suitable APV areas against national criteria was seen as a useful way to remove ambiguity. Policy tools to distinguish genuine agrivoltaic projects from speculative developments — and training for local decision-makers — were also proposed to safeguard agricultural and environmental integrity.
In a final prioritisation exercise, participants selected top measures across dimensions: training and skills development for agrivoltaic practitioners; simplification of authorization procedures; and increased investment in applied research were ranked highest. Secondary priorities included grid infrastructure upgrades and incentives for self-consumption, while tertiary measures focused on dialogue spaces, communication of solid evidence and case studies, and preventing land misuse.
The workshop demonstrated strong stakeholder engagement and interest in continued collaboration, with attendees asking to stay involved in upcoming activities and co-production of outputs such as scientific articles. The co-creation outputs will inform AGRISOL’s policy recommendations, capacity-building plans, and dissemination activities designed to support a socially acceptable and sustainable scale-up of agrivoltaics in Italy.
