SuN-diverse – More biodiversity in solar farms

The project is intended to help ensure that nature conservation concerns are taken into account more strongly than before in the implementation of ground-mounted photovoltaic systems (open land solar farms) at the municipal level.

To this end, the definition process of 'biodiversity-friendly solar farms' at the federal level, which began with Solar Package I, will first be accompanied by digital workshops. In this way, technical questions are to be clarified and possible consequences of definitions assessed. The results are also to be used in the short term to support current discussions and upcoming regulations.

In addition, the current state of research on the impacts of open land solar farms, especially on specially and strictly protected species, will be reviewed and summarized for the expert public within the framework of the project. A survey will be commissioned to identify PV-sensitive species (species groups) in order to derive impacts and measures for species protection compensation within the area.

The use of existing instruments for increasing biodiversity in open land solar farms, as well as the new instruments likely to be introduced as part of the Solar Package, is to be promoted. To this end, the support needs of actors at the municipal level (municipalities and districts) will first be identified. This will be followed by the transfer of project results and technical principles to the municipal planning practice.

Procedure

In order to achieve these goals, various event formats are used. These include workshops conducted online, workshop discussions in small groups and nationwide events for a large number of participants, as well as regional classroom events with excursions to best-practice locations.

The results of the expert discussions and the species protection report are brought together and prepared in an information brochure for the stakeholders involved in solar parks from municipalities/counties, associations and agriculture. The brochure provides information on the current legal regulations and the procedural steps of the planning process in which nature conservation concerns should be taken into account. It will be freely available after the end of the project period.

Expert report

As part of the project, an expert report on the possibilities and limits of species protection compensation in solar parks was published in August 2024:

Dr. Stephan Feldmeier et al. (08/2024) Fachgutachten "Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des artenschutzrechtlichen Ausgleichs in Solarparks" (bgh plan Trier)

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