EEG 2027: after the hearing, a decision is unlikely before November 2026 – what it means for agrivoltaics

12 min read · Updat­ed on 22 Octo­ber 2026

What happened?

Accord­ing to the inter­nal timetable of the Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Ener­gy, the gov­ern­ment bill for the EEG 2027 and the grid con­nec­tion pack­age were to be adopt­ed in sec­ond and third read­ing in the sit­ting week of 14 to 16 Octo­ber 2026. Nei­ther bill, how­ev­er, appeared on the Bun­destag agen­da for that week. Accord­ing to the BEE, the nego­tia­tors of the par­lia­men­tary groups still need time. pv mag­a­zine report­ed this on 15 Octo­ber 2026.

Accord­ing to a cir­cu­lar from the asso­ci­a­tion, BEE Pres­i­dent Ursu­la Heinen-Ess­er now expects the sec­ond and third read­ings in the week of 9 to 13 Novem­ber. The Bun­desrat could then fol­low on 20 Novem­ber. Whether the par­lia­men­tary groups will amend the sub­stance of the gov­ern­ment bill remains open.

What does this mean for farmers and landowners?

For your land, noth­ing changes for now as a result of the post­pone­ment. Only the date has moved. The remu­ner­a­tion rules for agri­v­oltaics will only be fixed once the law has been adopt­ed and approved under state aid rules. Until then, the gov­ern­ment bill is the best avail­able basis for lease and project dis­cus­sions.

What does this mean for developers and municipalities?

The uncer­tain­ty main­ly con­cerns the tran­si­tion at the turn of the year. The BEE con­sid­ers it unclear whether the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion can grant approval in time for the planned entry into force on 1 Jan­u­ary 2027. A delay would increase the uncer­tain­ty. Accord­ing to Heinen-Ess­er, the asso­ci­a­tion is hav­ing exist­ing legal options exam­ined. For munic­i­pal­i­ties, our view is this: urban land-use plan­ning and secur­ing land do not depend on the date of the read­ing.

What happens next? The dates until the end of the year

• Bun­destag, remain­ing sit­ting weeks in 2026 accord­ing to the sit­ting cal­en­dar: 2 to 6 Novem­ber, 9 to 13 Novem­ber, 23 to 27 Novem­ber, 7 to 11 Decem­ber and 14 to 18 Decem­ber
• Expect­ed sec­ond and third read­ings accord­ing to the BEE: 9 to 13 Novem­ber 2026
• Bun­desrat, remain­ing ple­nary ses­sions in 2026 accord­ing to the ple­nary ses­sion dates: 20 Novem­ber 2026 and 18 Decem­ber 2026
• 31 Decem­ber 2026: the state aid approval for the EEG 2023 expires
• First reg­u­lar Bun­desrat ses­sion in 2027: 29 Jan­u­ary 2027

Our assess­ment: if 20 Novem­ber is missed, only 18 Decem­ber remains in the reg­u­lar 2026 ses­sion cal­en­dar. If the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion’s approval is not avail­able by then, only a few days would remain until 31 Decem­ber.

Our assessment at Ylektra

We devel­op agri­v­olta­ic and hybrid projects totalling more than 850 MW on more than 950 ha. For our plan­ning, the gov­ern­ment bill from the cab­i­net deci­sion of 29 July 2026 remains the basis. It is still a draft. Under the gov­ern­ment bill, the ded­i­cat­ed agri­v­oltaics seg­ment is to be abol­ished. Agri­v­oltaics would com­pete in the first seg­ment, with a bonus of 0.5 ct/kWh for cat­e­gories I and II. In addi­tion, the draft grid con­nec­tion pack­age pro­vides for a hot-spot rule: cur­tail­ment with­out com­pen­sa­tion of up to 20 % of annu­al gen­er­a­tion (18 % in wind pri­or­i­ty areas) over six years.

Our rec­om­men­da­tion: plan projects so that they remain viable even if the law enters into force lat­er. Do not stop lease agree­ments and plan­ning because of the date. How the eco­nom­ics look under the draft is shown in our arti­cle “Is agri­v­oltaics still worth­while under the EEG 2027?”.

Below is our report on the hear­ing of 5 Octo­ber 2026 (as of 6 Octo­ber 2026).

On 5 Octo­ber 2026, the Bun­destag Com­mit­tee on Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Ener­gy heard experts on the gov­ern­ment bill for the EEG 2027 (Bun­destag print­ed paper 21/7867). Hard­ly any­one ques­tioned the cost objec­tive. The imple­men­ta­tion, how­ev­er, drew all the more crit­i­cism: for ground-mount­ed solar and agri­v­oltaics, sev­er­al new bur­dens add up, and agri­v­oltaics los­es its own auc­tion seg­ment.

Key points at a glance

• Addi­tion­al costs: BSW-Solar expects cost increas­es for ground-mount­ed solar of well over one cent per kilo­watt-hour; ARGE Netz expects 1.2 to 2.5 cents.
• Demands: a mar­ket val­ue cor­ri­dor (ARGE Netz pro­pos­al: 15 per cent), removal of the redis­patch reser­va­tion and, if nec­es­sary, a high­er max­i­mum bid val­ue.
• Legal frame­work: EU law only requires con­tracts for dif­fer­ence from 200 kW and, accord­ing to the Foun­da­tion for Envi­ron­men­tal Ener­gy Law (Stiftung Umwel­tenergierecht), allows a mar­ket price cor­ri­dor.
• Agri­v­oltaics: the ded­i­cat­ed auc­tion seg­ment is abol­ished; accord­ing to BSW-Solar, the bonus of 0.5 ct/kWh does not com­pen­sate for this.
• Timetable: the state aid approval for the EEG 2023 expires on 31 Decem­ber 2026. Under the inter­nal timetable of the Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Ener­gy, the sec­ond and third read­ings were planned for 14 to 16 Octo­ber 2026, but the gov­ern­ment bill was not on the agen­da. The BEE now expects them from 9 to 13 Novem­ber, and the Bun­desrat could fol­low on 20 Novem­ber. Whether the EEG 2027 enters into force as planned on 1 Jan­u­ary 2027 is uncer­tain (as of 16 Octo­ber 2026).

The problem: the cost objective and financeability are drifting apart

The draft is intend­ed to make expan­sion pre­dictable, cost-effi­cient, grid-com­pat­i­ble and mar­ket-ori­ent­ed. What is dis­put­ed is the sum of the instru­ments. ARGE Netz spoke of a “cost back­pack”: con­tracts for dif­fer­ence with rev­enue claw­back, the redis­patch reser­va­tion, active pow­er lim­i­ta­tion, new grid charges and high­er inter­est rates all have to be priced into projects. Banks can hard­ly assess some of these risks, and bids are ris­ing.

The experts includ­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the renew­able ener­gy indus­try, the Asso­ci­a­tion of Ger­man Cham­bers of Com­merce and Indus­try (DIHK), the Ger­man Trade Union Con­fed­er­a­tion (DGB), the nation­al asso­ci­a­tions of local author­i­ties and the Foun­da­tion for Envi­ron­men­tal Ener­gy Law. Many repeat­ed their crit­i­cism of the bills.

The BEE also warned of a break in con­ti­nu­ity at the turn of the year if the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion’s approval is not avail­able in time.

The regulation: what experts said about ground-mounted solar

BSW-Solar named five cost dri­vers for solar parks: rev­enue claw­back with­out a mar­ket val­ue cor­ri­dor, the redis­patch reser­va­tion, the lim­i­ta­tion of active pow­er to 70 per cent of the grid con­nec­tion capac­i­ty, feed-in grid charges and high­er munic­i­pal par­tic­i­pa­tion (max­i­mum amount raised from 0.2 to 0.3 ct/kWh). The result could be under­sub­scribed auc­tions, so that the planned 14 gigawatts would not be realised. The draft pro­vides for a max­i­mum val­ue of 5.9 ct/kWh in the first seg­ment; BSW-Solar con­sid­ers an increase nec­es­sary if the bur­dens remain.

ARGE Netz called for the redis­patch reser­va­tion to be removed and pro­posed a mar­ket val­ue cor­ri­dor of 15 per cent, which the BEE sup­port­ed. The DIHK, by con­trast, is fun­da­men­tal­ly scep­ti­cal of con­tracts for dif­fer­ence because they weak­en mar­ket sig­nals, and point­ed out that ground-mount­ed solar is already part­ly mar­ket­ed with­out sup­port through pow­er pur­chase agree­ments (PPAs). It called for risk hedg­ing for such con­tracts; ARGE Netz cit­ed the Nor­we­gian mod­el with up to 80 per cent cov­er.

The legal assessment: what EU law requires and what it does not

The Foun­da­tion for Envi­ron­men­tal Ener­gy Law assessed the bills legal­ly in its writ­ten state­ment (com­mit­tee print­ed paper 21(9)376). Prof. Thorsten Müller (Leuphana Uni­ver­si­ty Lüneb­urg, founder of the foun­da­tion) pre­sent­ed the key points at the hear­ing.

State aid law and a fund­ing gap: the state aid approval for the EEG 2023 expires on 31 Decem­ber 2026. Under the case law of the Court of Jus­tice of the Euro­pean Union (Case C‑653/23, TOODE), what mat­ters is when the ben­e­fi­cia­ry acquires a secured legal enti­tle­ment. In ten­ders, that is the award. The foun­da­tion there­fore rec­om­mends announc­ing all awards from the 2026 rounds before the turn of the year. The tran­si­tion­al rule in the draft (Sec­tion 103) only cov­ers the wind bid­ding date of 1 Feb­ru­ary 2027 and should be extend­ed to all bid­ding dates. Accord­ing to Müller, a renewed, short-term approval by the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion at Ger­many’s request remains con­ceiv­able.

Con­tracts for dif­fer­ence and a mar­ket val­ue cor­ri­dor: Arti­cle 19d of the EU Elec­tric­i­ty Mar­ket Reg­u­la­tion requires two-way con­tracts for dif­fer­ence or an equiv­a­lent scheme for sup­port estab­lished from 17 July 2027. This is only manda­to­ry from 200 kW. The draft sets the thresh­old at 100 kW, which is per­mis­si­ble. At the same time, the foun­da­tion sees room for manoeu­vre: a mar­ket price cor­ri­dor or a pre­dom­i­nant­ly pro­por­tion­al claw­back would be con­ceiv­able under EU law if this avoids coun­ter­pro­duc­tive effects. This sup­ports the demand made by the BEE and ARGE Netz. For solar parks it also remains impor­tant that elec­tric­i­ty not fed into the grid is not sub­ject to claw­back, and that stor­age, sys­tem-friend­ly plant design and PPAs remain ways to opti­mise.

Improve­ments: for the one-off exit after ten years (Sec­tion 21e), the foun­da­tion rec­om­mends a con­trac­tu­al penal­ty mod­elled on Italy (at most 20 per cent of the invest­ment costs). To counter under­sub­scrip­tion, it pro­pos­es giv­ing the Fed­er­al Net­work Agency the right to raise the max­i­mum val­ue at short notice in the first five ten­ders per tech­nol­o­gy. This match­es the con­cern raised by BSW-Solar.

Agrivoltaics: dedicated segment abolished

The draft abol­ish­es the spe­cial seg­ment for spe­cial solar instal­la­tions. Agri­v­oltaics would there­fore com­pete in the gen­er­al seg­ment and receive a bonus of 0.5 ct/kWh. BSW-Solar con­sid­ers this insuf­fi­cient: spe­cial forms would then have no mean­ing­ful chance of being realised, and the tech­nol­o­gy ini­ti­at­ed in Ger­many would be devel­oped fur­ther abroad. The Asso­ci­a­tion of Ger­man Cities called for a ded­i­cat­ed sup­port seg­ment for agri­v­oltaics, float­ing, peat­land and car park solar. The Ger­man Coun­ty Asso­ci­a­tion stressed that mul­ti­ple use of land eas­es com­pet­ing land uses.

Our assess­ment at Ylek­tra: the bonus is no sub­sti­tute for a ded­i­cat­ed seg­ment, but agri­v­oltaics remains com­pet­i­tive. In future, the award will be decid­ed by site and grid qual­i­ty, not by the tech­nol­o­gy alone.

Grid and storage: where the award is decided

The grid con­nec­tion pack­age will be heard in the same com­mit­tee on Wednes­day, 7 Octo­ber. Under the cab­i­net deci­sion, loca­tion-based steer­ing applies in grid hot spots: no com­pen­sa­tion for cur­tail­ment, lim­it­ed to 20 per cent of annu­al gen­er­a­tion and six years, and bids are tied to the spec­i­fied land par­cel. Grid com­pat­i­bil­i­ty thus becomes a check to be made before bid­ding.

At the same time, the hear­ing point­ed to a way out. ARGE Netz sees stor­age and co-loca­tion as a way to enable cur­tail­ment at the grid con­nec­tion point instead of at the plant. The DIHK called for more stor­age at solar parks. The BEE referred to a Fraun­hofer study accord­ing to which 20 gigawatts of four-hour stor­age could have saved around four bil­lion euros in costs.

For con­text on wind: under the gov­ern­ment bill, the lease cap of 3.5 per cent applies to onshore wind ener­gy, not to solar parks or agri­v­oltaics. The Foun­da­tion for Envi­ron­men­tal Ener­gy Law con­sid­ers the lim­it jus­ti­fi­able but the rule not water­tight against cir­cum­ven­tion.

The solution: align projects with grid, storage and land

Ylek­tra devel­ops solar and agri­v­olta­ic projects with bat­tery stor­age across Ger­many and plans them along this log­ic:

1. Grid first: the con­nec­tion point and any hot-spot loca­tion are checked before land is secured, because the bid is tied to the land par­cel.
2. Stor­age from the out­set: co-loca­tion cre­ates room for manoeu­vre in active pow­er lim­i­ta­tion and cur­tail­ment.
3. Dual land use: agri­v­oltaics strength­ens local accep­tance, which munic­i­pal­i­ties and coun­ties express­ly empha­sised at the hear­ing.
4. Fair par­tic­i­pa­tion: munic­i­pal par­tic­i­pa­tion and lease mod­els are nego­ti­at­ed ear­ly and trans­par­ent­ly.

Conclusion

The hear­ing showed that the cost objec­tive is wide­ly shared, but the path towards it needs improve­ment: the mar­ket val­ue cor­ri­dor, the redis­patch reser­va­tion, tran­si­tion­al rules and the agri­v­oltaics seg­ment are the adjust­ing screws. The sec­ond and third read­ings were orig­i­nal­ly planned for mid-Octo­ber. How­ev­er, the gov­ern­ment bill was not on the agen­da for 14 to 16 Octo­ber 2026, because, accord­ing to the BEE, the nego­tia­tors of the par­lia­men­tary groups still need time. The BEE now expects adop­tion in the Bun­destag in the sit­ting week of 9 to 13 Novem­ber and delib­er­a­tion in the Bun­desrat on 20 Novem­ber. If this date is missed, in our assess­ment only 18 Decem­ber remains in the reg­u­lar 2026 ses­sion cal­en­dar. Whether the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion can grant approval by 31 Decem­ber 2026 is open. Crit­i­cism of the bills is clear: accord­ing to NDR, Schleswig-Hol­stein’s Min­is­ter-Pres­i­dent Daniel Gün­ther (CDU) expressed con­cern in a let­ter to Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor Friedrich Merz that the plans for the EEG amend­ment and the grid pack­age would “harm the poten­tial of the Fed­er­al Repub­lic and my state”. For agri­v­oltaics, the gov­ern­ment bill remains the plan­ning basis until adop­tion. Any­one devel­op­ing projects should plan robust­ly: grid-com­pat­i­ble sites, stor­age, reli­able land agree­ments. That is exact­ly where Ylek­tra comes in.

Frequently asked questions on the EEG 2027 hearing (FAQ)

When did the hear­ing on the EEG 2027 take place? On 5 Octo­ber 2026 from 12:15 to 14:15 in the Bun­destag Com­mit­tee on Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Ener­gy. It was based on the gov­ern­ment bill (Bun­destag print­ed paper 21/7867) and motions from the AfD, the Greens and the Left.

What did the experts crit­i­cise about the rules for ground-mount­ed solar? Above all, the sum of new costs: rev­enue claw­back with­out a mar­ket val­ue cor­ri­dor, the redis­patch reser­va­tion, active pow­er lim­i­ta­tion, grid charges and high­er munic­i­pal par­tic­i­pa­tion. BSW-Solar expects addi­tion­al costs of well over one cent per kilo­watt-hour.

What changes for agri­v­oltaics under the EEG 2027? The ded­i­cat­ed auc­tion seg­ment is abol­ished. Agri­v­oltaics com­petes in the gen­er­al seg­ment and receives a bonus of 0.5 ct/kWh. Indus­try asso­ci­a­tions and the Asso­ci­a­tion of Ger­man Cities are call­ing for the spe­cial seg­ment to be retained.

Does the lease cap also apply to solar parks and agri­v­oltaics? Not under the gov­ern­ment bill. The 3.5 per cent cap applies to onshore wind ener­gy. For landown­ers in solar and agri­v­oltaics, the lev­el of the lease remains a mat­ter of con­tract.

Has the EEG 2027 already been adopt­ed? No (as of 16 Octo­ber 2026). It is a gov­ern­ment bill under par­lia­men­tary delib­er­a­tion. It was not on the Bun­destag agen­da in the sit­ting week of 14 to 16 Octo­ber 2026. The BEE expects the sec­ond and third read­ings from 9 to 13 Novem­ber 2026. The state aid approval for the EEG 2023 expires on 31 Decem­ber 2026.

When will the EEG 2027 be adopt­ed? There is no fixed date yet (as of 16 Octo­ber 2026). The BEE expects the sec­ond and third read­ings in the Bun­destag in the sit­ting week of 9 to 13 Novem­ber 2026. The Bun­desrat could fol­low on 20 Novem­ber 2026. The last reg­u­lar Bun­desrat ses­sion of the year is on 18 Decem­ber 2026, the next one not until 29 Jan­u­ary 2027.

What hap­pens if the EEG 2027 does not enter into force on 1 Jan­u­ary 2027? There is no com­pre­hen­sive rule for this case so far. With Sec­tion 103, the gov­ern­ment bill only con­tains a tran­si­tion­al rule for the bid­ding date of 1 Feb­ru­ary 2027. What is cer­tain: the state aid approval for the EEG 2023 expires on 31 Decem­ber 2026. The Foun­da­tion for Envi­ron­men­tal Ener­gy Law does not con­sid­er a fur­ther, again short-term approval by the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion to be ruled out under EU law. The BEE is hav­ing exist­ing legal options exam­ined.

What does this mean for site selec­tion for solar projects? Grid com­pat­i­bil­i­ty becomes a pre­lim­i­nary check: loca­tion-based steer­ing with lim­it­ed cur­tail­ment com­pen­sa­tion applies in grid hot spots, and bids are tied to the spec­i­fied land par­cel. Stor­age and co-loca­tion cre­ate addi­tion­al room for manoeu­vre.

Sources

• pv mag­a­zine: Bun­destag will prob­a­bly not adopt the EEG 2027 and grid pack­age until Novem­ber (15 Octo­ber 2026, in Ger­man)
• top agrar: Min­is­ter-Pres­i­dent Gün­ther crit­i­cis­es Reiche’s ener­gy pol­i­cy (13 Octo­ber 2026, in Ger­man)
• Foun­da­tion for Envi­ron­men­tal Ener­gy Law: state­ment for the hear­ing on 5 Octo­ber 2026 (in Ger­man)
• Ger­man Bun­destag: agen­das of the 101st to 103rd ses­sions, 14 to 16 Octo­ber 2026 (accessed 16 Octo­ber 2026)
• Ger­man Bun­destag: sit­ting cal­en­dar 2026
• Bun­desrat: ple­nary ses­sion dates
• Bun­destag: hear­ing on the EEG 2027 (5 Octo­ber 2026)
• Bun­destag: agen­da of the 47th ses­sion
• Solarserv­er: hear­ing in the Bun­destag – experts oppose the draft EEG amend­ment (in Ger­man)
• zfk: more par­tic­i­pa­tion, capped wind leas­es – the con­flict of objec­tives in the EEG 2027 (in Ger­man)
• Bun­destag: hear­ing on the grid con­nec­tion pack­age (7 Octo­ber 2026)
• Ylek­tra: EEG 2027 and grid pack­age – what the draft bill means for agri­v­oltaics, stor­age and per­mit­ting (in Ger­man)