France just completed the world's largest agrivoltaic trial — installing solar panel canopies above 2,400 hectares of Provence vineyards, cereal fields, and vegetable plots, generating 500 megawatts of clean electricity from the same land producing full agricultural output.
The Sun'Agri program installs tilting solar panels on 5-meter-tall structures above crops, with panel angles controlled by sensors responding to crop water stress and solar irradiance. Panels tilt to provide shade on hot days, reducing crop water needs by 30 percent and heat stress damage by 64 percent during heatwaves while generating electricity from diffuse light above the canopy. Crop yields in pilot vineyards increased 27 percent in drought years.
France loses 18,000 hectares of agricultural land to conventional ground-mounted solar annually. Agrivoltaics eliminate this conflict entirely — 2,400 dual-use hectares replace lost food production while generating clean power.
Source: French National Institute for Agriculture INRAE, Sun'Agri France, French Ministry of Agriculture, 2025
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