Agriculture and photovoltaics is a combination that too often goes into conflict, especially when it comes to large ground-mounted systems. There is a long-standing question, then of the subtraction of land from agriculture in favor of photovoltaics, but in the spotlight and the finger pointing of environmentalists and farmers there is also the problem of maintaining the fertility of the land which, once the cycle of life of photovoltaic systems, they may have lost the fertility necessary for a useful and rapid agricultural reuse.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Agriculture and photovoltaics it is a combination that too often goes into conflict, especially when it comes to large ground systems. A conflict that is not always easy to manage from various points of view. First of all, there is the problem oflandscape impact, so much so that many regions have passed ad hoc laws and regulations to prevent the indiscriminate expanse of solar panels in areas of landscape, historical and environmental value: this is the case, for example, of Toscana, which totally prohibited the installation of photovoltaic panels on the ground in the Valc D 'Orcia area, whose landscape is recognized as a world heritage by the UNesco.
The question is perennial, then of the subtraction of land from agriculture in favor of photovoltaics, but in the spotlight and the pointing finger of environmentalists and farmers there is also the problem of maintenance of soil fertility that, once the life cycle of the photovoltaic systems has ended, they may have lost the fertility necessary for a useful and rapid agricultural reuse.
The group is working on this last front 9Ren, a company that understands large plants (6 new plants with 16 MW of installed power only in August) and which has entrusted the CRA-RPS (Council for Research and Experimentation in Agriculture) with an experimental research activity for try to identify good management practices of agricultural land that host photovoltaic systems, so as to maintain its fertility.
The objective of the research, in fact, is that of maintain the soils in conditions of integrity of the organic substance content and biological functionality. After all, the Italian-Spanish group is not new to research and initiatives aimed at trying to remove possible contrasts between agricultural use of land and ground photovoltaic systems: at the photovoltaic plant of Lanuvio, in the province of Rome, also taking advantage of some directives in this sense of the Lazio Region, 9Ren has in fact planted an organic orchard to hide the plant from view and, moreover, keep the agricultural vocation vital of the site referring to the precepts of permaculture, i.e. the planting of different plant species in order to reduce the use of pesticides.
The new research foresees the assignment by 9REN to the CRA-RPS of activities of analysis of some land where the group's ground-mounted photovoltaic systems are installed. Therefore, soil and plant management methods compatible with the existence of the photovoltaic system will be applied to the land itself, aimed at maintaining or even improving the fertility of the land.The land on which the experimentation will be conducted there are two for now: one in Puglia at the 8MW plant called Masseria Martellotta, located in the municipality of Palagianello, in the province of Taranto and one in Lazio, right in the 6MW plant in the municipality of Lanuvio, called beautiful view 1. In fact, a project of Social Farm, studied by the agronomist Gianluca Ciampi, which foresees the entrusting of the management of the orchard to the Cooperative Agriculture Capodarco, in collaboration with the Department of Social Policies of the Municipality of Lanuvio. At both plants, then, the land will be divided into 6 experimental sub-areas, on each of which a management and / or cultivation methodology of suitable essences will be applied according to the principles of organic farming. The preliminary soil analyzes and those that will be carried out over the next three years will be performed and evaluated by the CRA-RPS researchers. From the results obtained it will be possible establish the best land management methodology o the most suitable crop to maintain the soil in the same or better fertility conditions than those pre-existing the plant.
“We are looking to the future” says Stefano Granella, CEO of the 9REN Group “with a view to sustainability, which is why our photovoltaic systems are designed and built according to the logic of integration into the territory both from an environmental and social point of view. The goal of this project, which we have baptized with the name RENland, is to return the land used for our photovoltaic systems in an integral way to the pre-existing agricultural activity. On the basis of the experiments that we will carry out on these lands, we will determine a protocol that will be applied to all 9REN systems installed on agricultural areas. We strongly believe in the importance of this experimental program, which is why we shared this goal with a center of absolute reference in this field, the CRA-RPS, which has chosen to be our partner ".
"The CRA-RPS has always been at the forefront for the development of methods and tools for sustainable soil management" declares Roberta Farina, researcher, "therefore we have enthusiastically welcomed the 9REN proposal which immediately appeared to us to great interest, given the widespread use of photovoltaic systems in the territory of our country, which mainly insist on agricultural land. In fact, the risk is that poor management of these soils could make them unsuitable for the end of the life cycle of the plant, for the return to their agricultural production function. We will therefore be able to develop soil and crop management solutions that allow these soils to return to their original function in good conditions of chemical and biological fertility. "
Andrea Marchetti
