Agri-PV in EEG 2027: Why 2026 is the Deciding Year for Agrivoltaics

The Ger­man ener­gy land­scape is on the verge of a fun­da­men­tal realign­ment. As the Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Cli­mate Action (BMWK) pre­pares the draft bill for the Renew­able Ener­gy Sources Act (EEG) 2027—sched­uled for late Jan­u­ary 2026—key indus­try asso­ci­a­tions are posi­tion­ing them­selves. Recent impuls­es from the BEE(Ger­man Renew­able Ener­gy Fed­er­a­tion) and the BDEW (Ger­man Asso­ci­a­tion of Ener­gy and Water Indus­tries) make one thing clear: the mar­ket design for solar pow­er is under­go­ing a rad­i­cal recon­struc­tion.

Since the cur­rent leg­isla­tive process is expect­ed to be com­plet­ed by the 2026 sum­mer break and the exist­ing EEG expires at the end of that year, now is the crit­i­cal moment to plan future-proof Agri-PV (agri­v­oltaics) projects.

The New Paradigm: Contracts for Difference (CfD)

A cen­tral pil­lar of the reform is the tran­si­tion from the tra­di­tion­al mar­ket pre­mi­um to two-way Con­tracts for Dif­fer­ence (CfDs). This mod­el aims to cush­ion price volatil­i­ty and pro­tect both investors and the state from extreme mar­ket fluc­tu­a­tions.

A Prac­ti­cal Exam­ple: The CfD Approach Explained Imag­ine you oper­ate an Agri-PV plant and “agree” on a so-called “Strike Price” of 9 cents per kilo­watt-hour (kWh) with the state:

• Sce­nario: Low Mar­ket Price. If the exchange elec­tric­i­ty price drops to 5 cents/kWh, the state com­pen­sates the 4‑cent dif­fer­ence. Your total rev­enue remains sta­ble at 9 cents/kWh, guar­an­tee­ing the nec­es­sary plan­ning secu­ri­ty for your financ­ing part­ners.
• Sce­nario: High Mar­ket Price. If the exchange price ris­es to 12 cents/kWh, you keep your agreed rev­enue of 9 cents and return the sur­plus 3 cents to the state.

Why the EU Has Been Braking on “Solar Package I”

This sys­temic shift is a direct response to reg­u­la­to­ry require­ments from Brus­sels. The EU Com­mis­sion has not yet grant­ed final approval for parts of the Solar Pack­age I, as it per­ceives a risk of improp­er “wind­fall prof­its.” By focus­ing on CfDs, the EEG 2027 aims to cre­ate a sym­met­ri­cal dis­tri­b­u­tion of risk, there­by secur­ing long-term state aid approval.

Ylektra: Strategic Advantage Through Transparency

While many mar­ket play­ers were caught off guard by the EU’s firm stance, Ylek­tra is among the pio­neers of this devel­op­ment.

• Fore­go­ing Spec­u­la­tive Excess Rev­enue: In our eco­nom­ic analy­ses for Agri-PV projects, we have always pur­sued a con­ser­v­a­tive and pro­fes­sion­al approach. We delib­er­ate­ly cal­cu­late with­out spec­u­la­tive wind­fall prof­its. Our mod­els are based on sta­ble yields that remain ful­ly viable even under a CfD regime.
• Guar­an­teed Bank­a­bil­i­ty: Ylek­tra antic­i­pat­ed ear­ly on that the CfD mod­el would become the Euro­pean stan­dard. Our plant designs are opti­mized to min­i­mize cap­i­tal costs through max­i­mum trans­paren­cy. We advo­cate for a lean CfD design: liq­uid­i­ty risks can only be effec­tive­ly elim­i­nat­ed if dif­fer­ence pay­ments are based on real­is­ti­cal­ly achiev­able mar­ket prices.

Alignment of BEE & BDEW: Focus on System Integration

Despite dif­fer­ent pri­or­i­ties, both the BEE and BDEW are unit­ed in call­ing for pro­duc­ers to take greater sys­tem respon­si­bil­i­ty.

• Grid Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty as the Key: The BDEW is call­ing for incen­tives for plants that relieve the grid rather than over­load­ing it dur­ing peak times.
• The Ylek­tra Solu­tion: Our intel­li­gent track­er sys­tems fol­low the sun’s path, sig­nif­i­cant­ly shift­ing pro­duc­tion to high-val­ue shoul­der peri­ods (morn­ing and evening).
• Smart Hybrid Solu­tions: We con­sis­tent­ly com­bine Agri-PV with bat­tery stor­age. This strat­e­gy fol­lows the prin­ci­ple of “uti­lize instead of cur­tail,” mak­ing your oper­a­tion inde­pen­dent of short-term grid bot­tle­necks.

Innovative Approaches: Quantity-Based Subsidies

A for­ward-think­ing pro­pos­al from the BEE is the move away from time-based sub­si­dies. Instead of cal­cu­lat­ing rigid­ly over 20 years, a plant would be guar­an­teed a fixed amount of elec­tric­i­ty (kWh). In the event of neg­a­tive prices, the plant cur­tails pro­duc­tion with­out los­ing its sub­sidy entitlement—the vol­ume is sim­ply fed into the grid at a lat­er, more lucra­tive time.

Ylektra’s Plea for Local Planning Autonomy

Agri-PV offers eco­log­i­cal added val­ue that is often slowed down by bureau­crat­ic hurdles—especially on land with­out auto­mat­ic “priv­i­leged” sta­tus. For the EEG 2027 amend­ment, we pro­pose giv­ing munic­i­pal­i­ties more effec­tive tools to reduce bureau­cra­cy for local­ly sup­port­ed Agri-PV projects. Lean­er pro­ce­dures reduce real­iza­tion costs and mas­sive­ly accel­er­ate region­al val­ue cre­ation.

Conclusion: Secure the Future of Agri-PV Now

The upcom­ing draft bill in late Jan­u­ary 2026 will define the reg­u­la­to­ry envi­ron­ment for years to come. While polit­i­cal pref­er­ence for Agri-PV remains, the require­ments for tech­ni­cal flex­i­bil­i­ty and finan­cial solid­i­ty are increas­ing.

Choose a con­cept that antic­i­pates the ener­gy tran­si­tion of tomor­row, today.