[copie] AGRIELI

The AGRIELI project questions the relationship between renewable energy infrastructure, agriculture and landscape and how this connection can provide and maintain biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services that contribute to the socio-ecological transition and the circular economy, on several spatial levels. The research focuses on two approaches - agrivoltaics and biogas power plants - putting the French situation into perspective with that of the Netherlands.

The two technologies interact differently with agriculture and their host landscapes, plus they require different distribution networks. Agrivoltaics allows dual use of land for electricity and agricultural production and can, among others, influence crop yields and the level of biodiversity. Biogas power plant not only produces energy, high-value compost and helps to manage biological waste flows but also holds the potential to contribute to a circular economy. These two technologies, despite their differences, are both closely tied with agricultural systems and face similar environmental, landscape and biodiversity-related challenges. Key concerns relate to the perspective competition between energy and food production, where energy profitability could affect the provision of food in different agricultural sectors. Those concerns provide the motivation for AGRIELI while the project team will also examine new synergies.

Three research tasks of the project:
- Analyze and compare two types of renewable energy infrastructures (agrivoltaics and biogas power plants) and two different public policy and project approaches (French and Dutch).
- Analyze and evaluate concrete projects in relation to their territory, in terms of stakeholder dynamics, ecosystem services, processes, and outcomes of the actions implemented; the operations analyzed will be located in the Seine Valley, with Dutch counterpoints.
- Support local stakeholders and other agents in order to initiate an action research process. This will involve workshops for the discussion of possible scenarios at different scales, to support them in the decision, optimizing the connection between energy, agriculture, landscape and ecosystem services.

The expected results of the AGRIELI project are an assessment of public policies and its implementation mechanisms (urban planning code, biodiversity policies, planning instruments, etc.) putting in perspective the two nations. Secondly, an assessment of the ecosystem services and biodiversity provided by these agricultural and energy production landscapes in terms of co-benefits. Another result is territorial support for specific transition projects through the development of recommendations based on scenarios that include ecological, human perception and other societal parameters. To achieve this, ENSP and WUR have planned an action research project for 3 years. The results of the project are aimed at public and private stakeholders responsible for implementing new infrastructures, as well as institutional leaders and local stakeholders wishing to ensure broad consideration of the various interests at stake and adequacy of the developments to the local landscape. The project combines academic and pragmatic objectives, and benefits from an international dimension to compare and learn from experiences collected elsewhere.