At the Dani OIE 2026 conference, held from 20 to 22 May in Opatija, the Renewable Energy Sources of Croatia (RES Croatia / OIEH) and the Italian Sustainable Agrivoltaic Association (AIAS – Associazione Italiana Agrivoltaico Sostenibile) signed a cooperation agreement aimed at advancing agrivoltaics, renewable energy development and sustainable land use. The agreement was signed by Maja Pokrovac, Director of RES Croatia, and Andrea D’Amico, representative of AIAS.

The partnership will focus on the exchange of knowledge and experience between Croatia and Italy in the field of agrivoltaics, joint analyses of regulatory frameworks, the organisation of conferences, workshops and professional training programmes, as well as the promotion of public-private partnerships and energy communities. Particular attention will be given to integrating food and energy production, developing agro-energy zones and promoting circular economy technologies.

Cooperation with Italy is especially important as the country is one of Europe’s leading markets for agrivoltaic development. In recent years, Italy has established a strong regulatory and incentive framework for agrivoltaics, and national programmes and tenders have already approved projects representing several gigawatts of new capacity.

RES Croatia is already actively working on the development of this sector in Croatia. With the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and in cooperation with three agricultural faculties, RES Croatia prepared the Study on the Potential Use of Solar Energy in the Agricultural Sector and Freshwater Aquaculture Sector. The study identified significant opportunities for combining food and energy production through agrivoltaic and aquavoltaic systems while preserving agricultural production and strengthening the energy resilience of rural areas.

The study found that Croatia could install up to 4.7 GW of agrivoltaic capacity on just 5% of its agricultural land. In addition, the deployment of floating solar power plants in existing freshwater aquaculture facilities could support annual production of more than 16,000 tonnes, approximately four times higher than the average production levels recorded over recent decades.

Dual-use land concepts are particularly important in Europe because they maximise the use of solar energy while allowing land to continue serving other productive purposes. This approach also increases public acceptance of large-scale solar projects within local communities.