The decree to regulate the development of agrivoltaism published in the Official Journal

This decree, which was initially to be published on Saturday but was slightly postponed, provides in particular that the reductions in yield induced by the production of electricity from photovoltaic panels installed on pastures, orchards, market gardening lands or other crops cannot exceed 10% compared to the "average yield" observed on a control plot.

Controls, the terms of which will be specified by decree in the coming weeks, will be carried out and sanctions in the event of non-compliance may go "up to the dismantling of the installation in question with restoration of the plot", specifies the government in a press release.

The renewable energy acceleration law adopted in February 2023 provides that an agrivoltaic project guarantees the plot concerned significant agricultural production and a sustainable income, and provides at least one of the following services: improvement of the agronomic potential, adaptation to climate change, protection against hazards or improvement of animal welfare.

The government stressed on Friday the need to preserve the output of farmers' production capacities while giving them the freedom to use agrivoltaism.

It is a question of "complementing agricultural production with the production of solar energy" and "not replacing agricultural production with the production of solar energy, underlined the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, quoted in the press release.

The decree sets the maximum surface area of ​​agricultural land covered by solar panels at 40%, except for projects which have already largely proven themselves.

This text regulates on the one hand agrivoltaism, which designates installations associated with agricultural practices (cropping or breeding), allowing the maintenance of production and providing an agronomic benefit, and on the other hand the development of photovoltaic projects on the ground on agricultural, natural or forest land, which will only be possible in uncultivated or recently uncultivated areas, according to the government.

The decree does not, however, resolve all aspects, in particular the question of sharing the value generated by energy production, between the land owner, the farmer who operates the field and the agrivoltaic project leader.

“Everyone has to be there,” indicated the office of the Minister for Agriculture Agnès Pannier-Runacher, where we concede, for example, that “if it becomes too interesting for the land owner , it can harm agriculture.”

“New legislative initiatives” on this point must be presented in the summer, according to the same source.

The minister is due to meet on Tuesday with the prefects on the implementation of the decree but also with Jules Nyssen, president of the Renewable Energies Union.

“The decree provides for a territorial variation allowing elected officials and professionals in the sector to decide on projects that will best respond to their local issues,” she declared in the press release.

A first assessment of the system will be made in a year.