Is agrivoltaics still worthwhile under the EEG 2027?

5 min read · Updat­ed on 22 Octo­ber 2026

In short: yes. Agri­v­oltaics in the priv­i­leged seg­ment can still pay off under the EEG 2027 if the real­i­sa­tion is right. With state-of-the-art track­er tech­nol­o­gy and cost-effi­cient, lean­ly organ­ised project real­i­sa­tion, Ylek­tra enables project returns (IRR) of more than 8 %. For bank-financed, i.e. debt-lever­aged, projects, equi­ty returns of more than 20 % are pos­si­ble. If a large-scale bat­tery is also inte­grat­ed, both to pro­tect against neg­a­tive-price hours and to opti­mise the mar­ket­ing of the solar pow­er gen­er­at­ed, the net present val­ue ris­es sig­nif­i­cant­ly again. With the cab­i­net deci­sion of 29 July 2026 on the EEG 2027, which has been before the Bun­destag since Sep­tem­ber 2026, the reg­u­la­to­ry basis is chang­ing fun­da­men­tal­ly at the same time.

Is it worth it? The key figures at a glance

Even after the agri­v­oltaics bonus was cut from 2.5 ct/kWh to 0.5 ct/kWh, agri­v­oltaics in the priv­i­leged seg­ment remains an attrac­tive asset class, pro­vid­ed the real­i­sa­tion is cost-effi­cient:

• Project return (IRR): more than 8 % is achiev­able for care­ful­ly cal­cu­lat­ed, turnkey agri­v­olta­ic projects in the first seg­ment.
• Return on equi­ty: more than 20 % for bank-financed, i.e. debt-lever­aged, projects; lever­age through low-cost debt is the deci­sive return dri­ver.
• With large-scale stor­age on top: if a large-scale bat­tery is added that both pro­tects against neg­a­tive-price hours and opti­mis­es the mar­ket­ing of the solar pow­er (feed­ing in specif­i­cal­ly dur­ing high-price phas­es instead of the price troughs), the pro­jec­t’s net present val­ue (NPV) ris­es sig­nif­i­cant­ly again. The bat­tery is there­fore not a cost block but an addi­tion­al return lever.

These orders of mag­ni­tude appear con­sis­tent­ly in cur­rent Ylek­tra project cal­cu­la­tions for the first seg­ment. Deci­sive for achiev­ing these val­ues is effi­cient, cost-effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion, from EPC pro­cure­ment and grid con­nec­tion to the financ­ing struc­ture.

The EEG 2027 cabinet decision in figures

The gov­ern­ment bill resets the eco­nom­ic para­me­ters for ground-mount­ed solar and agri­v­oltaics:

• Applic­a­ble val­ue (Sec­tion 48(1) of the EEG 2027 draft): 6.2 ct/kWh
• Max­i­mum val­ue in the first seg­ment (Sec­tion 37b): 5.9 ct/kWh
• Annu­al ten­der vol­ume: 14,000 MW
• Sec­tion 37d EEG 2023 (the pre­vi­ous agri­v­oltaics ten­der seg­ment) is abol­ished with­out replace­ment; agri­v­oltaics will in future com­pete in the reg­u­lar first seg­ment
• In return, Sec­tion 38a(1) (sys­tems > 1 MW) and Sec­tion 48(1b) (≤ 1 MW) secure a uni­form bonus of 0.5 ct/kWh, equal­ly for ele­vat­ed (cat­e­go­ry I) and tracked (cat­e­go­ry II) sys­tems. This rais­es the applic­a­ble val­ue for an agri­v­olta­ic sys­tem to 6.7 ct/kWh.

Because the state aid approval is expir­ing, the law must be in place in 2026; the Bun­destag delib­er­a­tions are there­fore under time pres­sure.

Large-scale storage as an additional NPV lever

A com­mon mis­un­der­stand­ing: a large-scale bat­tery (BESS) is not pri­mar­i­ly built to con­sume elec­tric­i­ty local­ly, as such high con­sump­tion is not (yet) the rule on farms. With the increas­ing elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of agri­cul­ture, this may of course change in future. Its eco­nom­ic con­tri­bu­tion today aris­es at the fol­low­ing lev­els:

• Pro­tec­tion against zero and neg­a­tive prices: instead of cur­tail­ing at neg­a­tive exchange prices, gen­er­a­tion is stored tem­porar­i­ly and mar­ket­ed lat­er.
• Mar­ket­ing opti­mi­sa­tion: the bat­tery shifts solar pow­er specif­i­cal­ly from low-price mid­day hours into high-price time win­dows, with day-ahead and intra­day trad­ing instead of fixed feed-in at the aver­age price.
• Ancil­lary ser­vices: in addi­tion, bal­anc­ing ener­gy (aFRR/FCR) for the trans­mis­sion sys­tem oper­a­tors, where the grid allows it.
• Grid relief: a smoothed feed-in curve at the shared grid con­nec­tion point, an argu­ment against cur­tail­ment under the new loca­tion-based steer­ing.

Tak­en togeth­er, these effects raise the net present val­ue of an agri­v­olta­ic project notice­ably above the lev­el of a pure ground-mount­ed sys­tem with­out stor­age. The exact uplift depends on bat­tery size, lay­out and mar­ket envi­ron­ment and is cal­cu­lat­ed for each project.

Dual use at a shared grid connection

For farm­ers, the cab­i­net deci­sion does not change the plan­ning law priv­i­lege under Sec­tion 35 of the Fed­er­al Build­ing Code (BauGB); actu­al cul­ti­va­tion of the land remains a cen­tral require­ment for cat­e­gori­sa­tion under DIN SPEC 91434. If agri­v­oltaics is com­bined with a large-scale bat­tery at the same grid con­nec­tion point, the farmer secures either cap­i­tal income from mar­ket­ing the elec­tric­i­ty, if invest­ing them­selves, or a long-term, index-linked lease if Ylek­tra invests in the sys­tem.

Conclusion: yes, it pays off, with efficient realisation

The EEG 2027 marks the final tran­si­tion from pure feed-in remu­ner­a­tion to mar­ket inte­gra­tion with the help of bat­tery stor­age. Agri­v­oltaics in the priv­i­leged seg­ment remains eco­nom­i­cal­ly attrac­tive: project returns above 8 % and, with a sen­si­ble debt struc­ture, equi­ty returns above 20 % are achiev­able if real­i­sa­tion is cost-effi­cient. An inte­grat­ed large-scale bat­tery rais­es the net present val­ue sig­nif­i­cant­ly again, through pro­tec­tion against neg­a­tive prices as well as opti­mised mar­ket­ing. Ylek­tra struc­tures and realis­es such projects along these new rules, from site assess­ment in the hot-spot con­text and bat­tery siz­ing to the financ­ing struc­ture.

FAQ

Is agrivoltaics in the privileged segment still worthwhile under the EEG 2027?

Yes. With state-of-the-art track­er and bat­tery tech­nol­o­gy and cost-effi­cient, turnkey real­i­sa­tion, project returns (IRR) of more than 8 % are achiev­able. For bank-financed projects, the return on equi­ty ris­es to more than 20 % thanks to debt lever­age.

Does an additional large-scale battery pay off economically?

Yes. A large-scale bat­tery pro­tects against neg­a­tive-price hours and opti­mis­es the mar­ket­ing of solar pow­er by shift­ing feed-in specif­i­cal­ly into high-price time win­dows. Togeth­er, both raise the net present val­ue (NPV) of an agri­v­olta­ic project sig­nif­i­cant­ly again.

Does the EEG 2027 cabinet decision change the planning law privilege for agrivoltaics?

No. The priv­i­lege under Sec­tion 35 BauGB remains. What is being tight­ened is the con­trol of actu­al agri­cul­tur­al cul­ti­va­tion, to which the new 0.5 ct/kWh bonus is linked.

Why is the previous agrivoltaics tender segment being abolished?

The leg­is­la­tor repeals Sec­tion 37d EEG 2023 with­out replace­ment and trans­fers agri­v­oltaics into the reg­u­lar first seg­ment. This is com­pen­sat­ed by the new bonus under Sec­tion 38a(1) and Sec­tion 48(1b) of the EEG 2027 draft.

What does the new location-based steering mean for projects in grid congestion regions?

In grid hot spots, cur­tail­ment with­out com­pen­sa­tion will be pos­si­ble in future, capped at 20 % (18 % in wind pri­or­i­ty areas) of annu­al gen­er­a­tion and lim­it­ed to six years. Since bids are tied to the land par­cel, grid com­pat­i­bil­i­ty becomes a pre­lim­i­nary check before the ten­der.

What happens next with the EEG 2027?

Fol­low­ing the cab­i­net deci­sion of 29 July 2026, the Bun­destag has been delib­er­at­ing on the bill since Sep­tem­ber 2026. Because the state aid approval is expir­ing, the law is to be adopt­ed in 2026.