“The Assembly poses a huge threat to the soil,” worried the Green MPs. As part of the bill on the acceleration of the production of renewable energies, parliamentarians indeed voted, on Wednesday, December 14, a series of measures to regulate the development of photovoltaics on agricultural land. Admittedly, the latter is better framed but it will above all be facilitated, regrets the opposition. Who would have liked solar on rooftops and wasteland to be prioritized.

At the heart of the debates, the definition of “agrivoltaism”. This practice consists in theory of combining food and energy production. "It's a tool for adapting to climate change," insists Nathanaël Kasriel, of France Agrivoltaisme, the sector union. Concretely, the solar panels installed in the open field are supposed to offer welcome shade to the herds or salutary protection to the vineyards exposed to hailstorms. A dozen projects have barely emerged from the ground, and about 150 are in development, according to the organization.

Except that in fact, as Reporterre was able to observe during an investigation, “some people did anything”. Half-empty photovoltaic greenhouses in the Pyrénées-Orientales, urban “agrisolar park” projects sheltering a few lonely sheep... Above all, the term has been widely used to sell – and make acceptable – imposing solar projects on agricultural land. "This high-sounding word of 'agrivoltaism' is marketing," denounced the Confédération paysanne in a forum. It conceals the grabbing of agricultural land by energy production companies in a hurry to enrich themselves, on the backs of the peasant world. »

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