Italy: 1.5 Gigawatts for Agrivoltaics

Agrivoltaics have been all the rage this year, and perhaps they’re raging nowhere more than in Italy. Italy just recently held its first ever tender for agrivoltaics, and it was a big one!

Bel Paese awarded contracts for 1.5 gigawatts of agrivoltaics solar projects within its borders. That’s spread across 540 different projects.

And the tender was oversubscribed. There were 643 bids totaling 1.7 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity. Large projects awarded contracts include “270 MW for European Energy, a 62 MW Repower array in Sicily, and a 73 MW Next Energy Capital installation in Campania.” There’s also “Solarig with 122 MW and Photosol with 55 MW. DCH Di Carlo Holding secured more than 140 MW, ranking just behind European Energy.”

Naturally, it’s Italy’s energy agency, Gestore dei Servizi Energetici (GSE), that has overseen the tenders and is in charge of this program. Most of the winning projects are to be located in southern Italy, or the bottom of the Italian boot.

“Most of the projects came from agricultural companies,” pv magazine writes. “All eligible projects received incentives, as the tender’s maximum quota was not met. Discounts on ceiling prices ranged from 9.18% to 53%, with larger projects benefiting from economies of scale.” The most that will be paid to projects 300 kW or smaller is €0.093 ($0.097)/kWh, while the most for projects over 300 kW is €0.085 ($0.089)/kWh.