Schedule

Chair: Shilp Verma IWMI Person of Contact: Nikunj Usadadia MNRE Person of Contact: Tarun Valecha, Shivam Rai

Chairs: Max Trommsdorff, Deepak Gupta IWMI Person of Contact: Priyanka G. MNRE Person of Contact: Arun Kumar, Abhiyansh Kumar

India has more than 50 operational agrivoltaics projects, but scaling up needs technology and design choices suited to the country's diverse agro-climatic zones, crop systems and small, fragmented landholdings. This technical session looks at the trade-offs between fixed-tilt, tracking and semi-transparent PV systems, and at the role of high-power and bifacial modules. It also covers cost-effective mounting structures that allow farm machinery access, and the evidence on crop yields under partial and dynamic shading. Experts from India, Japan, Israel, Europe and the USA will discuss which global innovations can be adapted for Indian conditions. They will also look at how systems can support the 5F framework of Food, Feed, Fodder, Fibre and Fuel, with links to agro-processing and rural enterprises.

Scaling agrivoltaics depends not only on policy and technology but also on a skilled workforce. Studies estimate that around 60 GW of agrivoltaics in India could need more than 300,000 full-time workers by 2040. This session, led by the Skill Council for Green Jobs, looks at the main skill gaps across the agrivoltaics value chain: system design, installation, operations and maintenance, crop management under solar systems, and project development. Speakers will discuss how to bring farmers into the skilling ecosystem, align vocational training and certification with industry needs, and build agrivoltaics into India's national skilling and green jobs frameworks.

IWMI Person of Contact: Tejkaran Charan MNRE Person of Contact: Rishikesh Vaishnav, Amod Kumar

Agrivoltaics is often framed as an energy or land-use question, but its long-term success depends on an agronomic one: what can be grown productively and profitably beneath and between solar arrays. Solar modules change the microclimate of a field, which can protect shade-tolerant crops in hot, water-scarce regions and reduce yields of light-demanding crops elsewhere. With 15 agro-climatic zones and 20 agro-ecological regions, India faces a zoning question rather than a single technical answer. Led by ICAR and IWMI, this session brings together India's national agricultural research leadership and international researchers from Germany, the Netherlands, France and the USA to ask which crops perform well in which zones under which system configurations. Speakers will cover the evidence on how crops respond to shade, methods for modelling light and measuring crop performance, and how existing zoning frameworks can be extended into an agrivoltaics suitability framework. The goal is a shared research agenda and practical guidance for where and how agrivoltaics should be promoted under PM-KUSUM 2.0.

Chairs: Meekha H. Paul, Bharat Kakade IWMI Person of Contact: Oorna Raut MNRE Person of Contact: Rohit Thakwani, Dharmesh N. Choudhary

IWMI Person of Contact: Nikunj Usadadia MNRE Person of Contact: P.V. Tarun Saketh, Shubham Bhattacharya

Chairs: Ganesh Neelam, Kornelia Silishebo IWMI Person of Contact: Oorna Raut MNRE Person of Contact: Manish Singh Bisht, Mohit Jain

This session brings agrivoltaics to life through stories from the ground. Through presentations and videos, practitioners will share experiences from agrivoltaics projects in India and around the world. These include Sahyadri Farms' vision of farmer-owned agrivoltaics hubs that power irrigation, cold storage and food processing. Findings from a nationwide awareness programme reaching farmers through 100 Krishi Vigyan Kendras will also be presented. Field stories from Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha, Karnataka, Telangana, Germany and Namibia show what works, what farmers need, and how farmer-centric agrivoltaics can be scaled.

The Closing Ceremony brings the 7th AgriVoltaics World Conference to a close by drawing together three days of dialogue and celebrating the people driving the field forward. It opens with a summary of the conference's key outcomes. The centrepiece is an awards segment recognising outstanding farmers, research, policy leadership, industry innovation, international cooperation and young leaders in agrivoltaics. The ceremony ends with a symbolic handover to the next host country, marking the conference's continuing global journey and the growing international momentum behind agrivoltaics.