Future solar farms: technologies, impacts, spatial planning options

The aim of the project is to evaluate current technical and planning developments in ground-mounted photovoltaics in connection with Federal expansion targets and to develop options and possible courses of action for nature conservation. A distinction is made between options in connection with future amendments to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and those that affect regional planning, building and licensing laws, but possibly also other areas of law, and which are aimed in particular at the unsubsidised developments of large solar parks outside the EEG legal framework.

Among other things, it is planned:

• Evaluation of possible regulatory changes to PV in subsidy law (EEG 2023) and in planning and approval law (e.g. B-Plan obligation, privileging, agri-PV, intervention regulation)
• Estimation of developments regarding PV-farms that will fall out of EEG subsidies from approx. 2022, as well as the development of proposals for their continued operation, if necessary also in connection with repowering
• Evaluation of the tenders for innovative solar installations according to § 15 InnAusVO
• Development of an evaluation aid for the intensity of intervention of PV-farms, e.g. on grassland, arable land, conversion areas and their design after construction)
• Analysis of risks and synergies in the construction of floating PV systems, literature research on possible impacts of floating PV and the development of criteria for the nature- and water-compatible construction of floating PV systems

Method

Within the framework of the project, existing spatial analyses and expansion scenarios as well as approval notices for floating PV-systems are evaluated. The aim is to analyse as concretely as possible potential developments in the coming years and their possible consequences for nature conservation and landscape management.