Towards collective arrangements to foster photovoltaics in agriculture

Agriculture is energy-intense, but also has a huge potential for generating energy directly at the point of use from renewables, e.g. biomass, photovoltaics and wind. In this paper, we investigate two models of collective arrangements among farmers in the federal state of Styria, Austria. These arrangements have the purpose to facilitate adoption of photovoltaics on farms. We contrast the two models and analyze aspects in the decision making of involved farmers. Although the arrangements are fundamentally different, we find that motives and concerns of farmers are similar in both models.