A new study by the Croatian Renewable Energy Sources Association (OIEH), the country's main renewable energy industry body, sets out where agrivoltaics could be deployed at scale across Croatian farmland without displacing existing agricultural use. Elsewhere, the association points to Croatia's water bodies, a number of which could be covered with solar modules to raise annual freshwater aquaculture fish production to more than 16,000 tonnes, almost four times the average of recent decades.
Climate change costing Croatia dearly
OIEH President Maja Pokrovac recently presented these findings at a meeting with SolarPower Europe, MEPs and Christophe Hansen, EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food. The discussion focused on how European agriculture can be made more resilient to increasingly frequent heatwaves, droughts and the effects of climate change, while also reducing its dependence on fossil fuels. “According to the European Environment Agency, Croatia ranks among the six EU Member States with the highest climate-related economic losses relative to GDP,” Pokrovac said, underlining the urgency of accelerating the shift to carbon-neutral energy. “That is why we see agrivoltaics and aquavoltaics not only as renewable energy projects, but as climate adaptation tools.”
Considering food, water and energy as one
Pokrovac describes these as practical, proven dual-use solutions that protect food production, improve water resilience, support biodiversity, generate clean energy and create new income opportunities for farmers and fish producers. “The future of agriculture is not about choosing between food and energy. It is about producing both,” she said. Europe, she argued, cannot afford to treat food, water and energy as separate challenges or separate resources. (su)
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