Albania has passed a new law allowing the construction of solar and wind power plants on pastureland, a move driven by growing demand for renewable energy installations. The new regulation, which amends the Law on the Pasture Fund, permits photovoltaic (PV) panels to be installed at least five meters above the ground, allowing for continued livestock grazing beneath them.
Pastureland covers about a tenth of Albania’s total area, with roughly 340,000 hectares in state ownership and between 60,000 and 80,000 hectares privately owned. The recent legal change was initiated by Edona Bilali, a lawmaker from the ruling Socialist Party, following numerous requests from developers seeking to build solar and wind power projects. The revised law now covers over 506,000 hectares, or 5,060 square kilometers, of pastureland.
In the solar power sector, the installation of PV panels with a five-meter clearance has made it possible to combine agriculture with energy production, a concept known as agrisolar or agrivoltaics. This approach offers multiple benefits: it provides shading and protection for livestock from extreme weather, such as hail and precipitation, and it can help regulate temperatures for crops. However, some developers have advertised their projects as agrivoltaic, even if they only allow grazing between the panels, as many traditional PV projects require land clearing anyway.
True agrisolar installations are those mounted on supports high enough to allow farming activities to continue beneath them. These systems have a higher cost than ground-mounted solar panels, but they are increasingly seen as a way to optimize land use, combining energy production with agricultural benefits. Innovations such as transparent and flexible solar panels for glasshouses are also being explored to make these dual-use systems more efficient.
Lawmaker Bilali emphasized the potential of Albania’s rural and mountainous areas for renewable energy development. She noted that the country’s abundant pastureland could be used for both agricultural and energy production, creating a win-win scenario for the economy. The government is focused on expanding renewable energy sources, and the use of pastureland for solar power is seen as an important step toward achieving these goals.
In addition to renewable energy, the new law also allows the development of facilities for social, healthcare, sports, and tourism purposes in designated pastureland areas, further diversifying land use and contributing to the country’s growth in multiple sectors.
