Regional circulation of food and energy makes it possible to improve well-being while reducing environmental impacts. The key to this strategy is abandoned farmland. Farmland is being abandoned at a rapid rate and this is expected to increase further in the future. Solar sharing schemes make use of this abandoned farmland by installing equipment for solar power generation, and ensuring the farmland is restored and maintained. There are multiple benefits to this, such as expanding renewable energy in a way that takes biodiversity into consideration and contributes to creation of a decarbonised society, reducing the ecological footprint through local production and local consumption of energy and food, bringing economic gain by selling the electricity produced by solar power generation outside the region, and enhancing energy and food security. In fact, many local governments that were selected in the Ministry of the Environment's first public offering for Decarbonization Leading Areas advocate effective use of the abandoned farmland. However, solar sharing schemes that make use of abandoned farmland present a variety of complex and unique challenges. The IGES Kansai Research Centre is supporting creation of Regional Circular and Ecological Spheres (Regional-CES) through dissemination of solar sharing on abandoned farmland in multiple locations in Hyogo Prefecture, including the Hokusetsu and Awaji regions. Based on these practical efforts, this session will analyse and share the current situation and challenges on solar sharing, discuss how administrative agencies, business sectors and communities can collaborate with each other and explore the roles played by external entities such as research institutions when introducing solar sharing.