Agrivoltaics: a promising renewable energy model still distant from a collaborative agroecology

Agrivoltaics is a technological package that has attracted considerable interest as it appears to combine agriculture and the energy transition (win-win configuration). However, several critical issues remain, not least because of local opposition to this type of installation. Drawing on a framework inspired by radical new institutionalism, the start-up phase of this technological package is analysed in Italy. The positioning of the various actors within this emerging organisational field is described through the analysis of official documents and in-depth interviews. Results show that an organisational field is indeed taking shape at the national level, though with certain biases: the agricultural sector occupies a dependent position, agroecological concerns are neglected, and installations are imposed from above without financial and planning involvement of local communities.