Potential of agrivoltaics in the EU under different regulation scenarios

In this work, we assess the technical potential for different scenarios, with an approach accounting for the impact of regulations, notably that of stricter restrictions. The aim is to define a "minimal" technical potential considering numerous exclusions and limitations. The agrivoltaics market potential assessment conducted in this work follows a multi-step process divided into two distinct sections. The first section involves estimating the technical potential for agrivoltaics considering currently available land, systematically narrowing down the scope to obtain a realistic potential. The second section describes the specific market potential using different deployment scenarios, aiming to represent the possible impact of regulatory constraints or choices on agrivoltaics. These regulations can have the objective of maintaining the continuity and profitability of the agricultural activity, with restrictions on loss of agricultural yield or ground coverage ratio, for example. One possible impact of regulations can be the exclusion of some crop types from agrivoltaics models, because of their unsuitability with the PV system. The selection of crops applied in this work is to be considered as one specific example of crop selection that could result from such regulations. The power density of systems considered to reach the capacity values are modified according to both the scenario and the type of systems. The evolution of the cumulative market potential of agrivoltaics in Europe is assessed yearly until 2100.