With a new Agri-PV Taskforce, the Global Solar Council wants to boost the hitherto underused market potential of Agri-photovoltaics and create standards and support awareness building across industries.
In an interview with Jochen Hauff we talk about the goals of the task force, the biggest hurdles on the way to more Agri-PV worldwide and why the topic is gaining momentum right now.
Why is Agri-PV becoming a hot topic right now, and why does it need a separate task force of the Global Solar Council?
Agri-PV is currently still a small but dynamically growing niche segment in the global solar market – which is exactly why the Global Solar Council now wants to focus more on it. We see enormous potential which has hardly been tapped so far, and which can lead to more solar deployment overall. At the same time, Agri-PV is a dynamic but also somewhat fuzzy segment: Almost anyone can call their project "Agri-PV." Is it Agri-PV if a standard PV system is using a handful of sheep to keep the grass in check or if a beehive is situated next to it? We want to resolve this grey area by sifting through the various definitions and, in the best case, agreeing on a globally valid rough definition and nomenclature. This will increase transparency about what is actually happening in the market. Also, we want to work with our member associations and corporates to tackle the regulatory barriers that still exist in many countries. In short, Agri-PV is now a niche with a lot of dynamism – and that's exactly why definition, structure, and coordination are needed now. And with Nextpower and Philipp Kunze as Chair, we found a corporate member of the GSC willing to support the establishment of the Task Force right in this inflection point of market development.
That sounds complex – to find a common denominator globally.
Yes and no. The Global Solar Council has many national and multi-national member organisations such as SolarPower Europe, for example, but also associations and corporate members in the Americas, across Asia, Oceania and Africa. So, we are not trying to understand or define the whole world from a global headquarters, but we want to orchestrate a communication process between the members that see a need here. It is quite clear that we cannot develop one strict global definition for 200 countries that will stand up in court. But we can show what has already worked where and encourage members to take a closer look at the experiences of others. The Global Solar Council sees itself as a platform, catalyst and facilitator for this exchange – no more, but also no less.
What specific challenges and tasks will the task force address?
The biggest challenge is global coordination. The first step is to develop a coherent – or several nested – definitions of Agri-PV. Building on this, we want to contribute to improved data transparency: There are already good but heterogeneous data sources, for example the AgriSolar map by SolarPower Europe, the InSPIRE database in the USA or a WRI study on China, but they are all based on different definitions. That is why we are now starting to establish the task force and want to work with the members in the coming months to develop an initial position paper, which should be available by the global climate conference by autumn. A comprehensive market report on Agri-PV is planned for 2027 – subject to the necessary financing.
A good example of the importance of regulation is Germany, France and Italy, where the market has gained traction because it has been clarified that land with Agri-PV on it remains agricultural land. In Poland, on the other hand, where there is enormous potential, farmers currently have to formally “de-agriculturalize” their land in order to be allowed to install Agri-PV – a massive hurdle and quite counterintuitive given that agriculture continues to take place under and/ or in between the module rows. We, as the GSC, will not solve such national issues directly. But we can support the respective members by referring to global trends and working examples and by making Agri-PV more well known, globally.
On the one hand, there is the sheer size of the potential: Currently, about 3 terawatts of photovoltaics are installed worldwide. By contrast, estimates show the theoretical Agri-PV potential to be just under 33 terawatts – more than ten times as much as total solar PV installed today - assuming that only one percent of the world's available agricultural land is used. Around one terawatt of this potential is located in Europe and 3.4 terawatts in North America. The available space is therefore not the main problem. Rather, the necessary system upgrades through grid expansion, storage, and digitization.
The second reason, which is at least as important, is of a societal nature: In many countries, we are experiencing growing political polarization and an increasing urban-rural dichotomy, where rural communities feel disconnected from decisions made about their land and livelihoods. Energy infrastructure can sometimes be perceived as something done to rural areas rather than with them. Agri-PV can counteract this because it actively involves farmers in the value creation instead of just fencing and leasing land. In addition, Agri-PV helps against the consequences of climate change in a very practical way: it reduces evaporation, mitigates wind and water erosion, and increases biodiversity in the field through flower strips. Finally, the stable, bankable cash flow from Agri-PV projects can make it easier for farmers to switch to climate resilient, regenerative farming methods in an economically de-risked manner.
What are the advantages of cross-border cooperation in Agri-PV – and how different are the needs of the individual countries?
The forms of application of Agri-PV differ greatly depending on the climate zone and agricultural structure, and the picture is correspondingly heterogeneous. In countries with huge areas such as China, for example, Agri-PV is being used for "desert reclamation" – i.e. turning desert areas back into grassland with the help of wind-shading by solar modules. In many African countries, rural electrification is in the foreground, for example to enable smallholder farmers to electrify their water irrigation or cold storage. Making this wide spectrum visible is a central function of the Global Solar Council, which was originally founded so that the solar sector has a seat at the table when global energy and climate policy is discussed at the international level – for example at the UNFCCC conferences, G7, G20 or with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. To this end, we bundle the positions of our members and bring them to these important platforms. Equally important is the exchange between our global members themselves: They will lead us in defining results and determining which studies are needed to make a positive contribution.
Where do you currently see the biggest hurdles in the practical implementation of Agri-PV – for example, in terms of approval, financing, acceptance or technical standards?
I see the acceptance clearly on the positive side – it is one of the main reasons why we should advocate for Agri-PV in the first place, because farmers do not have to stop producing food on the land used for solar. A real barrier is rather that more people in the solar sector still need to better understand agriculture as a system. We need to learn how we can optimize food production while also generating electricity efficiently. It is key that we come to understand Agri-PV as more than a (complicated) way to manage approval processes.
Another hurdle is uncertainty: Although there are already many examples of accompanying research regarding agricultural productivity, these necessarily provide selective results. For example, findings from analyzing the yield of three years of wheat cultivation under PV in southern Germany can hardly be transferred to other regions or crops such as wine in southern France. This makes it all the more important to sort pragmatically: What do we already know for sure, what is highly likely to work, and where are white spots where we are breaking new ground? This requires entrepreneurial drive and people who really want to understand the interface between energy, agriculture, and R&D.
What concrete results should the task force deliver in the next one to two years?
The first impulse is the official establishment of the task force. With Nextpower as chair and great number of expressions of interest from GSC members and additional industry players in advanced discussions, we will have a relevant representation of the sector providing their inputs and experience. Also, we are in active conversation with partner organisations from agriculture, the collaboration with whom will be crucial for the success of the Task Force. At the launch event during Intersolar, representatives from the global Solar sector and the farmer perspective contributed inputs, which we will now condense into an initial briefing paper as a coordinated position of the members. Once confirmed by the members, the GSC will present and promote these findings at international forums such as the COP 31 in Türkiye in November. It will then also serve to further deepen the exchange with organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Programme of the United Nations and other cross-sectoral organisations.
At the same time, we are doing groundwork on data, facts, and definitions so that we can make well-founded statements in 2027 with an improved database. How extensively we expand the program depends on the interest and support of the members and the quality of our work. I am very sure that scaling Agri-PV from a niche topic to a global market trend will provide many benefits for everyone involved – and the GSC invites players from the solar and the food & agriculture sector, globally, to join this effort.
