A large ground-mounted solar project planned in Contrada Olivola, north of Benevento, is drawing renewed scrutiny after the civic association Benevento Partecipa asked for access to municipal records and clearer information about what was ultimately authorized.

Local reporting describes the proposal as covering approximately 98 hectares, with an estimated capacity of about 78 MW and more than 112,000 photovoltaic panels, plus a substation and related grid-connection infrastructure.

What the official record shows

The project is formally recorded in Italy's national environmental-assessment system as a 77.99 MW photovoltaic plant in Benevento, proposed by RWE Renewables Italia S.r.l., with associated grid-connection works. The Ministry's assessment portal lists the procedure as concluded.

The Ministry documentation page for the Olivola file also lists the public notice, environmental impact study, project documents, opinions submitted by authorities, and the environmental impact assessment decree. The summaries acquired from the portal do not themselves reproduce the full municipal opinion or the complete final authorization conditions.

What Benevento Partecipa is asking

According to local reports, Benevento Partecipa has requested access to records concerning the Municipality of Benevento's opinion on the project, including any conditions or prescriptions, possible changes to the project area, and the plans corresponding to the version finally authorized.

The request reflects a broader concern reported by the association and other local actors: agricultural land consumption, compatibility with municipal and provincial planning instruments, landscape change, and the cumulative presence of energy infrastructure in the northern contrade of Benevento.

Local coverage also reports that the Province of Benevento had raised objections concerning agricultural land consumption, planning compatibility, and cumulative effects. The Olivola project is identified in that reporting as a 78 MW installation covering approximately 98 hectares.

The olive trees and agricultural land

The reporting describes the planned removal and relocation of 542 olive trees in agricultural areas of Contrada Olivola. That figure comes from the project reporting cited by local outlets; it should be checked against the definitive approved project documentation before being treated as the final authorized configuration.

The agricultural-land question is central to the local debate. The project is presented as a large installation on rural land, and critics have focused on the scale of the land take, the transformation of cultivated areas, and how the installation would sit alongside other energy facilities in the same part of the Sannio.

What remains unclear

Several important points cannot be established from the portal summaries and press reports alone:

  • The exact surface area and layout finally authorized, and whether the project area was reduced or modified during the procedure.
  • The detailed content of the Municipality of Benevento's opinion and any enforceable prescriptions attached to it.
  • Whether the authorization has been formally challenged or suspended.
  • Whether the reported 542 olive trees and their relocation plan match the final approved documents.

For readers following the case, the relevant administrative acts are the municipal opinion, the provincial observations, the national environmental assessment decree, and the final authorized project plans. Those documents would show what was proposed, what opinions were issued, and what conditions, if any, apply to construction and operation.