Solar panels helped Puglia grapevines produce 277% more grapes

In a vineyard in Italy’s Puglia region, rows of grapevines grew beneath something more usually associated with power stations than agriculture: photovoltaic panels. The arrangement changed the amount of sunlight reaching the vines, but it also altered what was happening much closer to the ground. Soil stayed wetter, temperatures were less extreme and the air around the plants became calmer. The research published in Horticulturae by MDPI, titled ‘Exploring the Grape Agrivoltaic System: Climate Modulation and Vine Benefits in the Puglia Region, Southeastern Italy’ revealed when the grapes were harvested in 2025, vines growing under the panels produced 277% more grapes than vines exposed to full sun. The result has added an unusual dimension to the debate over how farmland might cope with hotter, drier conditions while still being used to produce food and renewable electricity.How agrivoltaics helps grapevines grow betterAgrivoltaics is based on a fairly simple idea. Instead of treating farmland and solar generation as competing uses of land, photovoltaic panels are positioned so that crops can continue growing beneath or between them.The arrangement is particularly interesting in Me...