Energy Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability in Rural Buildings: A Life Cycle Assessment of Photovoltaic Integration in Poultry Tunnels—A Case Study in Central Italy

Featured Application: The implementation of energy efficiency solutions in poultry farming, particularly those based on renewable energy sources, plays a crucial role in promoting more sustainable agricultural practices across rural territories. This study contributes to current research by providing empirical data on the real-world effectiveness of integrating photovoltaic systems into layer hen poultry tunnels. By grounding the analysis in real-world agricultural infrastructure and combining technical assessment with territorial relevance, the study contributes original insights into scalable, sustainable interventions for rural development. Livestock buildings in rural areas are increasingly recognized for their environmental impact, yet few studies provide applied, scenario-based evaluations to guide retrofit interventions. While the existing literature acknowledges the environmental burden of livestock facilities, it often lacks operationally grounded analyses applicable to real-world agricultural contexts. This paper proposes an original integration of experimental climatic monitoring and life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate retrofit scenarios for energy efficiency in real poultry farming contexts. Based on an accurate climatic monitoring campaign conducted on-site during the spring and summer periods, relevant data were collected on air temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation affecting two poultry tunnels in central Italy, highlighting the need for thermal mitigation. The comparison between the observed operational scenario and the hypothesized improved scenario, involving energy supply from photovoltaic sources, evaluated using the PVGIS tool, demonstrated a significant reduction in environmental impact, with a 33.4% decrease in global warming potential and a 26.1% reduction in energy consumption. This study combines experimental on-site climatic data collection with comparative environmental evaluation using LCA methodology. The LCA approach, which guided the entire study, highlighted how the energy efficiency gained through solar panels adequately offsets their production and maintenance costs over the long term. These findings offer a replicable model for energy retrofits in rural livestock facilities, contributing to both environmental goals and rural resilience.