Social representations of agrivoltaics in Italy: exploring media coverage of protests and shared understandings among experts

1. Aim and background According to the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), several obstacles hinder AgriVoltaics (AV) diffusion, notably regulatory ambiguities and challenges related to Locally Unwanted Land Use (LULU). Italy is not alone in confronting these issues, as Chatzipanagi et al. [1] extensively showed. While technical impediments have garnered significant attention, socio-psychological factors impeding the acceptability [2] and diffusion of AV necessitate deeper scrutiny. This contribution aims to fill this gap: our objective is to explore the shared understandings and representations of this technology in Italy, unravelling the perceived opportunities and concerns connected with the societal and regulatory processes guiding its diffusion. 2. Theory Our study integrates Social Representations Theory (SRT) and the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP). Within this theoretical framework, we conceptualize AV as a niche innovation and follow Geels's [3] advice to investigate its interactions within the broader agriculture and energy regimes. We posit that SRT can be particularly relevant to examine the understandings of AV that circulate at the niche and at the regime levels. 3. Method The research design is structured as follows. Two studies were conducted in parallel: we interviewed 13 experts advocating or opposing AV diffusion; at the same time, we conducted constructivist content analysis [4] of 40 news articles reporting local AV protests. Findings informed the construction of a semi-structured questionnaire, which was distributed among AIAS members to further investigate elements underlying social representations of AV. 4. Findings First findings highlights regulatory conflicts between state, regional jurisdictions, and environmental associations. Concerns about normative uncertainty due to geopolitical pressures are expressed by experts, while distrust towards institutions is gleaned from the news articles. Expert reservations regarding 'agroenergy entrepreneurs' skills and alignment of practices from different regimes are also addressed. Agronomists’ role emerge as pivotal in advising AV adoption, emphasizing crop yield forecasts and machinery evaluations. Finally, both media sources and experts state LULU concerns, based on individual beliefs regarding whether roofs and brown spaces suffice to meet Italian solar energy targets. Bibliography [1] A. Chatzipanagi, N. Taylor and A. Jaeger-Waldau, “Overview of the potential and challenges for Agri-Photovoltaics in the European Union.,” JRC Publications Repository, doi: 10.2760/208702. [2] S. Batel, “Research on the social acceptance of renewable energy technologies: Past, present and future,” Energy Research & Social Science, vol. 68, p. 101544, Oct. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2020.101544. [3] F. W. Geels, “The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions: Responses to seven criticisms,” Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 24–40, Jun. 2011, doi: 10.1016/j.eist.2011.02.002.