SWOT reimagined: unraveling the human-technology nexus in agrivoltaic transitions

Abstract

Agrivoltaics is increasingly discussed as a strategy to improve land-use efficiency, mitigate environmental impacts, and strengthen agricultural resilience. By combining renewable energy generation with food production, agrivoltaics reflects circular economy principles and offers multifunctional land management. Yet its adoption depends on socio-cultural perceptions, regulatory frameworks, and economic feasibility, requiring careful analysis of how stakeholders assess its opportunities and constraints. This paper introduces “Hierarchical SWOT Analysis”, a methodology that integrates hierarchical evocations with semantic network analysis to examine stakeholder perceptions of emerging technologies. Applied to the case of agrivoltaics diffusion in Jaén, Spain -a region where olive farming holds strong cultural and economic relevance- the method highlights both perceived benefits and contested issues. While agrivoltaics is associated with energy independence and economic stability, concerns emerge over landscape change, productivity trade-offs, investment risks, technical incompatibilities, and regulatory uncertainty. By mapping the relational structure of farmers’ social representations, the study connects technological feasibility with social acceptability and offers insights for policy design. Findings point to the importance of targeted incentives, cooperative models, and institutional support to foster adoption while respecting local agricultural practices and land-use priorities. More broadly, the proposed SWOT approach provides a scalable framework for analysing socio-technical transitions and supporting the sustainable deployment of agrivoltaics and other renewable energy technologies.