Solar Ban in Italy Pushes Developers Into Olive Oil Production

Summary

Despite a ban on util­ity-scale solar projects on agri­cul­tural land in Italy, some devel­op­ers are turn­ing to agri-pho­to­voltaic projects to con­tinue instal­la­tions. CCE Italia suc­cess­fully pro­duced olive oil from one of its agri-PV projects, high­light­ing the poten­tial for com­bin­ing renew­able energy and agri­cul­ture to cre­ate a com­pet­i­tive advan­tage.

Despite a pro­hi­bi­tion on util­ity-scale solar projects on agri­cul­tural land in Italy, the sec­tor is on pace for record instal­la­tions.

Rather than wait­ing for the out­come of a judi­cial review of the ban or aban­don­ing projects alto­gether, some devel­op­ers are turn­ing to the exemp­tion for so-called agri-pho­to­voltaic (PV) projects, where solar pan­els raised at least 2.1 meters above the ground are inte­grated into ongo­ing agri­cul­tural activ­i­ties.

Among the com­pa­nies mak­ing the pivot is CCE Italia, which pro­duced olive oil from one of its agri-PV projects in cen­tral Italy. 

”Companies like ours must evolve from solar PV to agri-solar PV projects,” Sandro Esposito, CCE Italia’s man­ag­ing direc­tor, told Olive Oil Times. “ This is a new eco­nomic sec­tor where we can com­bine per­fectly the agro­nomic side with the com­pany.”

Esposito dis­cov­ered 1,130 olive trees on a plot of land pur­chased by the com­pany for solar panel instal­la­tion in the Canino comune of the Lazio region.

With the pas­sage of the Agricultural Law Decree in May 2024, he saw an oppor­tu­nity to lever­age the company’s renew­able energy resources to cre­ate a com­pet­i­tive advan­tage in the agri­cul­ture sec­tor.

The com­pany invested €200,000 to relo­cate 290 of the Canino trees, which were aged between 50 and 70 years, to cre­ate space for a more com­pact pho­to­voltaic lay­out, plant an addi­tional 57 Canino trees and install a solar-pow­ered irri­ga­tion sys­tem.

At the end of 2024, CCE Italia har­vested olives for the first time, pro­duc­ing 700 bot­tles of organic olive oil on the same estate as the 14-megawatt solar plant, which is expected to be con­nected to the grid this year.

Esposito said that using solar power has sig­nif­i­cantly reduced the com­pa­ny’s irri­ga­tion costs and decreased the car­bon foot­print of the olive oil. 

“The energy needed for the pro­duc­tion came only from renew­ables,” he said. ​“So the car­bon foot­print of this olive oil is neg­a­tive,” cit­ing addi­tional tech­nol­ogy to cap­ture car­bon at the solar plant.

Rather than sell the olive oil, Esposito said the com­pany will give the bot­tles away, using them as a com­mu­ni­ca­tion tool to pro­mote syn­ergy between olive oil pro­duc­tion and other agri­cul­tural activ­i­ties, as well as solar PV devel­op­ment.

“ In the eval­u­a­tion of the old busi­ness model, at the end, you have an impact on the cap­i­tal expen­di­ture side for the buildup [of the agri­cul­tural side of the agri-PV project], but you will also have the income stream gained from sell­ing [the wine or olive oil],” he said.

Indeed, Milan-based Elemens Energy Boutique Consulting esti­mated that 62 per­cent, or 94 gigawatts, of solar projects under­go­ing per­mit­ting in Italy would not be affected by the ban, as they would ben­e­fit from the carve­out for agri-PV projects.

While Esposito plans to expand from olive oil pro­duc­tion into cheese and wine­mak­ing with new agri-PV devel­op­ments cen­tered around vine­yards and sheep pas­tures, he lamented the pol­i­tics behind the ban.

“If we want to cover all our needs from renew­ables within 2050, we need only two per­cent of all the agri­cul­tural land in Italy,” he said. According to Italia Solare, only 0.13 per­cent, or 16,600 hectares of Italy’s avail­able agri­cul­tural land, is cov­ered by util­ity-scale solar. 

Despite Esposito’s claim, there has been sig­nif­i­cant push­back from some por­tions of the country’s agri­cul­tural sec­tor against util­ity-scale solar. 

Coldiretti, Italy’s most pow­er­ful farm­ers’ union, wel­comed the ban when it was announced, cit­ing the need to pre­vent insti­tu­tional investors from buy­ing large swaths of farm­land to develop solar projects or resell at higher prices to devel­op­ers. 

“We can­not accept the short­cut of pho­to­voltaics,” said Luigi Pio Scordamaglia, Coldiretti’s direc­tor of inter­na­tional poli­cies. ​“We don’t want to accept the iner­tia of an admin­is­tra­tion that decided not to invest and improve irri­ga­tion. We want to real­ize the full pro­duc­tive poten­tial of that land again.”

Esposito, other devel­op­ers and con­sul­tants in the sec­tor have denied that any spec­u­la­tion is occur­ring. Indeed, other farm­ers have hailed the part­ner­ship between solar devel­op­ers and farm­ers as a life­line. 

“Photovoltaics are a sal­va­tion for us, a gift from the heav­ens,” Emanuele Bocchicchio, a farmer in the south­ern region of Basilicata, told the Financial Times. 

Bocchicchio earns €3,000 per hectare per annum from the 44 hectares he rents out to a local solar devel­oper. The farmer said the land is fal­low due to a lack of irri­ga­tion, com­bined with an increas­ingly hot and dry cli­mate. 

“No one is obliged to give their land for solar pan­els, it’s a free choice,” he said. ​“In mar­ginal areas like this, it’s vital.”

An esti­mated four mil­lion hectares of des­ig­nated farm­land lie fal­low in Italy, approx­i­mately one-quar­ter of the total, due to poor soil qual­ity, a lack of irri­ga­tion, and labor short­ages.

“This gov­ern­ment has to look at the real­ity of the farm­ers: every year the cli­mate con­di­tions are a lit­tle bit worse,” Camillo Rossi, a lawyer who has leased about 100 hectares of his fam­i­ly’s agri­cul­tural land to a solar devel­oper, told the Financial Times. 

“We don’t have the poten­tial to irri­gate. That’s what deter­mined the choice of solar pan­els,” he added.