As the world seeks alternatives to fossil fuels, agrivoltaics offer a promising solution by integrating solar panels with farming practices. This review examines three key agrivoltaic setups—static tilted, full-sun tracking, and agronomic tracking—dissecting their engineering features’ roles in optimizing both the electricity yield and the fruit productivity of some fruit crops. We emphasize the microclimatic modifications induced by agrivoltaic systems, mainly encompassing changes in solar radiation, air temperature, humidity, and wind. The data collected in this survey reveal a strong spatial heterogeneity distribution over different locations and a significant influence on fruit crops’ growth, yield, and quality, with variations among species. Such findings on the overall performance recommend a 30% shading threshold to prevent substantial declines in fruit characteristics, i.e., fruit yield and quality. Shading conditions over this threshold influence the leaf morphophysiological characteristics, impacting the photosynthesis capacity and fruit dry matter accumulation. This emphasizes the importance of further investigation into spectral radiation quality and carbon assimilation kinetics as daily responses for different fruit species to be cultivated in such new environments. Starting from this point, this review underscores the need to extend studies on various fruit crops, particularly those cultivated in semi-arid horticultural regions (i.e., for saving water), and suggests the use of comprehensive and standardized indicators for comparability across studies. Finally, the authors conclude that engineering improvements, along with new research programs on agrivoltaic systems, could lead to agricultural, environmental, and economic sustainability, as well as their practical implementation and attractiveness to farmers in the coming years.

This review explores the combination of renewable energy production and agriculture through agrivoltaic, with a focus on its impact on fruit crops. As the world seeks alternatives to fossil fuels, agrivoltaics offers a promising solution by integrating solar panels with farming practices. The study examines various agrivoltaic configurations with different fruit crops, emphasizing their influence on microclimatic conditions beneath the panels and the effects on crop produc-tion. In particular, it underscores the need for tailored solutions to balance energy yield and crop productivity and quality, with different shading levels affecting fruit quality/production. De-spite ongoing research, a comprehensive understanding of agrivoltaics' potential benefits and challenges remains crucial for its successful application and implementation in sustainable ag-riculture.

Fig fruits have recently received more attention by consumers for their quality as either fresh or dried fruits and, consequently, growers are becoming more interested in the cultivation of this species. Figs are mainly consumed as processed fruits (dried, marmalade, jam, etc.), but limited attention has been paid to new possible processing applications of several local cultivars grown in Mediterranean countries. This study aimed to investigate both the morpho-pomological characteristics and consumer sensory ratings (two groups: students and technicians) for four fig cultivars processed as a new type of product, ‘dried fig disks’. The results showed that three out of the four cultivars (Processotto Nero, Natalese Nera, and Verde di Natale) had good pomological characteristics such as fruit weight and skin color, as well as easy peeling, yield, ripening time, and TSS. The same cultivars received positive hedonic scores for appearance (>5 on a 10-point hedonic scale), flavor (4–6 on a 10-point hedonic scale) and taste (6–7 on a 10-point hedonic scale). The overall score was positive for Processotto Nero, Natalese Nera, and Verde di Natale (>5 on a 10-point hedonic scale), whereas one cultivar, Comunione, was less appreciated (<5 on a 10-point hedonic scale). The flavor–sensory attributes most appreciated were black-red fruit, cooked, grassy, and floral; fig off-flavors were perceived as rancid only by students and to a limited extent. Consumer overall acceptance toward dried fig disks was mainly driven by the acceptability of appearance of the new product, together with pleasant flavor and taste.

Agrivoltaic (AV) is a new concept integrating both the production of agricultural crops and electric power on the same land area through the installation of photovoltaic panels some meters above the soil surface and the crop canopy. In the present situation of energy demand from renewable sources, agrivoltaic systems with vines and/or fruit trees under the photovoltaic panels has still received poor attention. On the basis of this lack, the present 3-year study (2017–2019) aimed to investigate the effects of photovoltaic panels on grapevines of variety Corvina (Vitis vinifera L.). In particular, the experiment was carried out in a vineyard located in Northern Italy, Veneto region, with the Corvina (Vitis vinifera L.) grape variety and the effects of shading by the panels on both physiological activities and vine performances were analyzed. Photovoltaic panels reduced both air and soil maximum temperature by 1–2 °C. Vine transpiration on early morning was 0.83–0.90 in AV vs. 1.03–1.21 mmol H2O m⁻² s⁻¹ in full sun (FS) vines, whereas at midday values were significantly higher in AV vines (0.56–0.65) with respect to FS vines (0.38–0.44 mmol H2O m⁻² s⁻¹). Photosynthesis followed the same pattern with values significantly higher in the FS vines at morning (9.34–11.03 μmol CO2 m⁻² s⁻¹) with respect to AV vines (5.24–6–84 CO2 m⁻² s⁻¹), and the opposite was detected at midday, with 1.57–3.05 μmol CO2 m⁻² s⁻¹ in AV vines and 0.58–2.05 μmol CO2 m⁻² s⁻¹ in FS vines. The stem water potential was significantly reduced (less negative) by shading of the panels both at morning and at midday of values around 1–6 MPa thus indicating less stressful conditions for AV vines. The photovoltaic panels affected the microclimate of the vineyard (lower air and soil temperature, higher soil matric potential) in the three seasons. Vine productivity parameters (yield, cluster number and weight) were influenced to a limited extent; anthocyanins, TSS and polyphenols were reduced in grape must from AV vines. These findings show that the panels affect the vines microclimate and physiology and that yield reductions under AV are observed, but under hot and dry weather conditions results could be very interesting either for energy or fruit production. Further experiments need to be conducted in such environmental conditions also in the perspectives of the climate change.

In the context of climate change, in which some extreme weather and climate events have increased in frequency and intensity because of global warming, adaptive techniques in viticulture have become necessary to reduce the resulting negative impacts. This study on four table grape cultivars has evaluated the effects of different winter pruning treatments (time of pruning) on phenology, fruit composition and starch content in canes and ≥two-year-old wood. By shifting the pruning time from leaf fall up to budbreak (BBCH 08), a neutral response on yield and berry quality parameters (TSS, TA and pH) was observed for the 4 cultivars. Late pruning treatments resulted in shorter shoot lengths and delayed phenological stages for the early ripening cultivars. The partitioning of starch between canes and older wood was almost similar, although lower in canes, with average values of 13% and a significant reduction at budbreak in order to release soluble sugars for the initial vegetative growth. Starch was mainly located in newly formed xylem, i.e., in the parenchymatic rays where amyloplasts are located, whereas a smaller amount of starch was visible in the other tissues (phloem, cortex). The possibility of a late pruning until over budbreak can be considered a practice to avoid some late spring frost risks, often occurring in viticultural areas. Thus, a ‘precise’ application of winter pruning into a global warming viticulture context could have potential benefits, performing a cost-effective tool management without negative (or very limited for early cultivars) effects on yield and quality of table grapes.