From Photovoltaic to Agri-Natural-Voltaic (ANaV)

Italy is the geographic area with the highest world concentration of cultural sites, landscapes with a high esthetic value, and biodiversity. Therefore, any modification in the territory is to be performed by highly considering these cultural, landscape, and natural values. Also, Italy has a high human pressure on agricultural areas, especially in flatlands, that generally have a high agronomic value. As a consequence, the planning of photovoltaic installations in agricultural areas must meet at least five basic criteria: to cause as little use as possible to the agricultural soil, to maintain agricultural activities, to strengthen or introduce natural habitats, to properly mitigate the landscape impact, and to be located as far as possible from residential areas. This chapter presents the technological innovation with a high environmental value that characterizes the photovoltaic system, called Agro-Natural-Voltaic (AnaV), also using methodological and planning schemes together with landscape simulations. Moreover, the essay gives a description of the study on the environmental impact (for the administrative procedure of the Environmental Impact Assessment), laid down for the emblematic case study.