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In Murcia, Spain, photovoltaic arrays track the sun’s path while providing cover for an array of crops that includes bell peppers, wine grapes and dragon fruit. This sun-drenched southeastern area, whose economy leans heavily on farming, is testing whether agriculture and solar power can share the same ground instead of vying for it.
Silvia Tomasi, a senior researcher at Eurac Research, defines agrivoltaics as the pairing of food cultivation with renewable power generation. In practice, she notes, this means placing solar modules over, among or along the edges of productive farmland.
Research published in 2023 calculated that agrivoltaics, sometimes called agri-PV, could allow Europe to produce 25 times the electricity it currently consumes.
Solar energy, however, carries its own social and environmental burdens. Because it needs more surface area than other generation methods to yield the same output, it has triggered disputes over how land is used, particularly in the countryside.
Tomasi sees strong economic and ecological promise in agrivoltaics, though she cautions that outcomes hinge on how the technology is deployed and who ultimately gains.
In January, Elon Musk gave the notion of making southern Europe a solar hub a prominent boost, stating that thinly populated parts of Spain and Sicily could in theory produce sufficient solar electricity for the whole continent.
Major technology companies are already involved. Amazon and Apple have agreed to buy electricity from sizable agrivoltaic installations in southern Italy, with a total capacity exceeding 150 megawatts, which could cover the annual consumption of about 100,000 Italian homes.
Public money is flowing in as well. The AGRISOL initiative, backed by the EU, plans to channel EUR1.9 million into agrivoltaic ventures in countries such as Italy and Spain, and Italy by itself has obtained EUR1.7 billion in state support for the effort.
Angelo Gentili, national secretary of Legambiente, Italy’s biggest environmental group, describes agrivoltaics as a tiny contributor at present, but predicts it will deliver a substantial push toward decarbonisation if it grows.
Rules at both EU and national levels increasingly demand that farming stay a substantial component of any land hosting solar panels. French projects must keep at least 90 per cent of crop output relative to locally set benchmark yields, while Italy requires that no less than 70 per cent of the surface remain in agricultural use.
Specialists argue that merely combining solar and farming should not automatically count. Pilar Flores, who leads an EU-funded agrivoltaics effort at the Murcian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research and Development, contends that a classification system matters more than a definition. In her view, safeguarding agriculture ought to guide any such classification, with the central aim being to keep losses of arable land to a minimum.
Why put panels on farmland when vacant or derelict parcels exist? Flores explains that the criteria overlap: land that is fairly level and close to the grid is preferred. She also points out that unused land can carry ecological importance, so the decision is not merely a matter of tallying up available acreage.
Studies have shown that agrivoltaics can, in certain situations, boost water-use efficiency, shield crops from severe weather and raise the productivity of the land. Solar arrays may also assist farmers coping with a changing climate. Gentili notes that heavy rain and heat have badly harmed fields, driving growers to give up farming, and argues that agrivoltaics offer a valuable tool for preventing both abandonment and income shortfalls.
The shade from panels can cut evaporation, assist soil in holding moisture and bring comfort to workers and livestock. It can also shield crops from hail. Growers may use the electricity for their own needs and feed surplus into the grid, or lease the airspace above their land to power companies.
Flores cautions, however, that such advantages cannot be taken for granted. She observes that these possibilities are often described as though they inevitably occur, when in reality they depend on the particular agrivoltaic setup and the traits of the site. Her team in Murcia discovered that peppers under water stress thrived more under panels than those that were well irrigated. Every situation and every place, she says, requires its own assessment.
Some farmers remain sceptical. Fabrizio Garbarino, who heads the Italian farmers’ union Associazione Rurale Italiana, believes agrivoltaics sidestep the underlying difficulties growers confront. He argues that the sector is exploiting the crisis in Italian farming, when the real priority should be genuine remedies to stop farmland from being abandoned, calling the approach a mere shortcut.
He says startups acting for bigger corporations, data centre builders among them, are pressuring farmers to hand over their land. Even when the electricity is clean, he contends, land is being diverted from farmers to serve energy-hungry businesses.
Technology giants maintain that agrivoltaic power-purchase agreements assist them in meeting net-zero commitments. Yet a PPA does not guarantee that power from a given solar farm physically reaches a specific company site, and the precise carbon impact of AI data centres stays unclear.
A 2025 study co-authored by Tomasi, drawing on expert interviews in four European regions, concluded that agrivoltaics can tilt benefits toward big farmers, landowners and investors at the expense of smaller growers and nearby communities. It further found that shutting residents and ecosystems out of decisions can entrench existing power disparities.
Because of steep initial expenses and lengthy grid connection waits, large ventures financed by multinationals tend to control the industry. A 2025 review by the Italian outlet Today.it revealed that roughly 86 per cent of about EUR775 million in public funding for agrivoltaic schemes went to large-scale projects, some of them owned by foreign multinationals.
In September, an agrivoltaics development in Tuscany bankrolled by an Israeli firm provoked broad anger and prompted questions about who stands to gain.
Tomasi insists that local populations need a say to guarantee a fair transition. In her view, large investors entering unfamiliar places with a top-down mindset and capturing the financial rewards from the energy-generation side of agrivoltaics should not have their projects called agrivoltaics at all.
Flores suggests that authorities can assist by providing farmers with financial support and granting agrivoltaic systems preferential grid access.
Another unresolved matter is what sort of farming the revenue sustains. One study has observed that if the environmental pledge is to be honoured, the kind of agriculture financed by rental income from agrivoltaics must not be treated as an afterthought. The author proposes that such rent could instead fund agroecological methods or assist farmers in moving away from industrial agriculture.
Agrivoltaics could prove advantageous to both growers and the renewable energy industry. It may help safeguard farmland, aid farmers dealing with climate change and advance Europe’s decarbonisation targets. Yet it also carries the danger of turning into a greenwashing tool, a prop for unsustainable farming, or a means of satisfying rising corporate power needs on productive soil. By itself, it is no cure-all. A great deal rests on how systems are engineered, who holds ownership and, in the end, who gains.
Flores states that agrivoltaics exists to protect farmland and the whole ecosystem, and that this is its guiding principle. She adds that it must be possible to tell that apart from other agendas.
The Magma Environmental Reporting Fellowship made reporting for this story possible.
Interactive table based on the Store Companies dataset for this report.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of the chili and pepper market in Europe. Within it, you will discover the latest data on market trends and opportunities by country, consumption, production and price developments, as well as the global trade (imports and exports). The forecast exhibits the market prospects through 2030.
This report is designed for manufacturers, distributors, importers, and wholesalers, as well as for investors, consultants and advisors.
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While doing this research, we combine the accumulated expertise of our analysts and the capabilities of artificial intelligence. The AI-based platform, developed by our data scientists, constitutes the key working tool for business analysts, empowering them to discover deep insights and ideas from the marketing data.
Report Scope and Analytical Framing
Concise View of Market Direction
Market Size, Growth and Scenario Framing
Commercial and Technical Scope
How the Market Splits Into Decision-Relevant Buckets
Where Demand Comes From and How It Behaves
Supply Footprint, Trade and Value Capture
Trade Flows and External Dependence
Price Formation and Revenue Logic
Who Wins and Why
Where Growth and Supply Concentrate
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How the Report Was Built
Largest national producer
Key producer of diverse varieties
Significant European supplier
Large domestic & regional market
Almeria region is major hub
California, Florida, Georgia key states
Major EU exporter from greenhouses
Significant exporter to Europe/Russia
Large domestic consumption
Key supplier to EU
Part of Dole plc, global supply
Global fresh produce distributor
Known for Sunset brand
Significant controlled agri producer
Part of Bonduelle Group
Large pepper producer
Also produces peppers
Produces bell peppers
Includes pepper production
Major pepper producer in BC
Produces bell peppers
Produces bell & specialty peppers
Significant pepper supplier
Global pepper supplier
Includes pepper production
Major pepper producer
Significant US supplier
Major jalapeno processor/supplier
Bell pepper producer
Produces bell peppers
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