Your shirt starts sticking to your back as soon as you step into the vast greenhouse. It's 35 degrees Celsius outside and even hotter under the clear plastic roof.
They've been growing citrus fruits in this corner of southern Italy for generations. Citron trees are organized in neat lines. Above the green leaves of the trees, though, are meters and meters of electrical wiring connected to solar panels on the roof.
The Lancellotta family, who owns a farm in Calabria and several others across southern Italy, was an early adopter of agrivoltaic farming in the country. Crops are grown underneath solar panels, giving farmers two sources of income: the fruits of their harvest and selling electricity generated by the panels.
As extreme heat scorched the Italian countryside this summer, the Lancellotta family says agrivoltaic farming provides other advantages. "We have already recorded data over several years about the savings when it comes to water. We use roughly 1 million liters per hectare, compared to 6 million generally used in a field for the cultivation of citrus fruits," said Antonio Lancellotta, CEO of farming company Le Greenhouse.
Read more at cgtn.com