Agrivoltaics (Agri-PV): frequently asked questions and answers

1. Def­i­n­i­tion & tech­nol­o­gy · 2. Eco­nom­ics & remu­ner­a­tion · 3. Plan­ning law & priv­i­leged sta­tus · 4. Plan­ning & per­mit­ting

1. Definition & technology

What is agrivoltaics (Agri-PV)?

Agri­v­oltaics (agri-pho­to­voltaics, Agri-PV) means the simul­ta­ne­ous agri­cul­tur­al and ener­gy use of the same land. In Ger­many it is clear­ly defined in the stan­dard DIN SPEC 91434.

Accord­ing to DIN SPEC 91434, sec­tion 3, an agri­v­olta­ic sys­tem is the com­bined use of land in which:

• agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion is the pri­ma­ry use, and
• elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion by pho­to­voltaics is the sec­ondary use.

Agri­v­oltaics is there­fore not a con­ven­tion­al ground-mount­ed solar sys­tem but an inte­grat­ed land-use con­cept in which farm­ing remains func­tion­al­ly, eco­nom­i­cal­ly and struc­tural­ly at the cen­tre.

Core prin­ci­ples of agri­v­oltaics under DIN SPEC 91434

• Pri­ma­cy of agri­cul­ture: farm­ing leads the plan­ning, design and oper­a­tion of the sys­tem.
• Land effi­cien­cy: the same land is used twice, for food pro­duc­tion and renew­able ener­gy.
• Sys­tem inte­gra­tion: PV sys­tems are designed so that cul­ti­va­tion, har­vest­ing, irri­ga­tion and soil man­age­ment remain pos­si­ble.
• Reg­u­la­to­ry dis­tinc­tion: agri­v­oltaics is legal­ly and tech­ni­cal­ly defined sep­a­rate­ly from con­ven­tion­al ground-mount­ed PV.

Strate­gic impor­tance of agri­v­oltaics

Agri­v­oltaics sta­bilis­es farm incomes, increas­es land pro­duc­tiv­i­ty per hectare and cre­ates a sys­temic link between the ener­gy and agri­cul­tur­al sec­tors. At the same time it con­tributes direct­ly to the region­al ener­gy tran­si­tion with­out dis­plac­ing farm­land.

Why is agrivoltaics discussed as a compromise?

Ground-mount­ed solar farms often cre­ate a con­flict between food and pow­er pro­duc­tion. In Rhineland-Palati­nate, for exam­ple, con­ven­tion­al solar farms are to be built main­ly on low-yield sites (soil qual­i­ty index below 35). Agri­v­oltaics offers a com­pro­mise because it com­bines land uses rather than restrict­ing them.

What are the benefits of agrivoltaics for agriculture?

Besides dual land use, a well-designed agri­v­olta­ic sys­tem offers:

• Less soil ero­sion and evap­o­ra­tion.
• Bet­ter con­trol of irri­ga­tion.
• Pro­tec­tion against extreme weath­er such as heavy rain, hail and exces­sive solar radi­a­tion (espe­cial­ly with hor­i­zon­tal mount­ing).
• Poten­tial­ly high­er resilience and agri­cul­tur­al yields.

Which technical solutions exist?

There are two main types:

• Ver­ti­cal sys­tems: mod­ules are installed ver­ti­cal­ly, often bifa­cial, so that the land between the rows remains usable.
• Hor­i­zon­tal sys­tems: mod­ules are ele­vat­ed (e.g. in fruit grow­ing) so that work can con­tin­ue under­neath them.

2. Economics & remuneration

How do costs and yields compare with ground-mounted solar?

Because of its more com­plex con­struc­tion, agri­v­oltaics is more expen­sive than con­ven­tion­al ground-mount­ed solar, which under the EEG 2027 is only part­ly off­set by a bonus of 0.5 ct/kWh. Ylektra’s track­ing tech­nol­o­gy is an excep­tion: turnkey costs are high­er than for ground-mount­ed solar, but they are more than com­pen­sat­ed by sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er yields. See our com­par­i­son agri­v­oltaics vs con­ven­tion­al solar farms.

What are the levelised costs of electricity?

With lev­elised costs of elec­tric­i­ty of 5 to 10 ct/kWh, agri­v­oltaics is already com­pet­i­tive with oth­er renew­able ener­gy sources.

What remuneration do agrivoltaic systems receive under the EEG 2027?

In short: Under the gov­ern­ment bill for the EEG 2027 (cab­i­net deci­sion of 29 July 2026), agri­v­olta­ic sys­tems receive an ele­va­tion bonus of 0.5 ct/kWh – the same amount for Cat­e­go­ry I and Cat­e­go­ry II under DIN SPEC 91434. There is no longer a ded­i­cat­ed ten­der seg­ment for agri­v­oltaics.

• Sys­tems up to 1 MW (no ten­der required): statu­to­ry val­ue of 6.2 ct/kWh + 0.5 ct/kWh bonus = 6.7 ct/kWh (§ 48 (1) in con­junc­tion with (1b) EEG 2027).
• Sys­tems above 1 MW (ten­der required): award­ed val­ue up to the ceil­ing of 5.9 ct/kWh (§ 37b) + 0.5 ct/kWh bonus = max­i­mum 6.4 ct/kWh (§ 38a EEG 2027).
• The for­mer agri­v­oltaics sub-seg­ment (§ 37d EEG 2023) is abol­ished. Agri­v­oltaics com­petes with stan­dard ground-mount­ed solar in the com­mon first seg­ment, with an annu­al ten­der vol­ume of 14,000 MW.
• Sup­port is paid through two-way con­tracts for dif­fer­ence (CfDs): if the tech­nol­o­gy-spe­cif­ic annu­al mar­ket val­ue exceeds the statu­to­ry val­ue, sys­tems of 100 kW and above pay a refi­nanc­ing con­tri­bu­tion (§ 21d, § 3 no. 34 EEG 2027).

Sta­tus: 14 Octo­ber 2026. The EEG 2027 is sched­uled to enter into force on 1 Jan­u­ary 2027 but has not yet been adopt­ed; the Bun­destag is debat­ing the bill (hear­ing on 5 Octo­ber 2026). Fol­low the lat­est devel­op­ments in our con­tin­u­ous­ly updat­ed arti­cle EEG 2027 and agri­v­oltaics: cur­rent sta­tus; see also our detailed analy­sis of the cab­i­net deci­sion and grid con­nec­tion pack­age.

Which remuneration rules apply until the EEG 2027 enters into force?

The EEG 2023 applies until 31 Decem­ber 2026. The tech­nol­o­gy bonus of 2.5 ct/kWh for agri­v­oltaics (“spe­cial solar instal­la­tions”) intro­duced with Solar Pack­age I is sub­ject to EU state aid approval. With­out that approval:

• The max­i­mum bid size in ten­ders is 20 MW per instal­la­tion.
• Spe­cial solar instal­la­tions such as ele­vat­ed agri­v­oltaics receive a bonus of 0.5 ct/kWh on top of the award­ed val­ue (e.g. 5 ct bid + 0.5 ct bonus).
• The ceil­ing price of 9.5 ct/kWh from Solar Pack­age I does not apply.

The state aid approval of the EEG 2023 expires on 31 Decem­ber 2026.

Which requirements apply for the agrivoltaics bonus?

Only sys­tems that qual­i­fy as a spe­cial solar instal­la­tion under § 37 (1) no. 3 EEG and are built in accor­dance with DIN SPEC 91434 (or DIN SPEC 91492 for live­stock farm­ing) receive the bonus:

• Cat­e­go­ry I: ele­vat­ed sys­tems with hor­i­zon­tal­ly ori­ent­ed mod­ules and a clear­ance of at least 2.10 m.
• Cat­e­go­ry II: ground-lev­el sys­tems with a clear­ance of at least 0.80 m – only with exclu­sive­ly ver­ti­cal ori­en­ta­tion or track­er sys­tems.
• Annu­al proof of agri­cul­tur­al use: if it is miss­ing, the statu­to­ry val­ue is reduced by 0.5 ct/kWh (§ 48 (5) or § 54 (2) EEG 2027). The reduc­tion is reversed retroac­tive­ly if the proof is sub­mit­ted in the fol­low­ing year.

Which deadlines apply after an agrivoltaics tender award?

Under the EEG 2027, an award­ed sys­tem must go at least part­ly into oper­a­tion with­in 24 months, oth­er­wise the award laps­es (§ 37e).

• Com­mis­sion­ing more than 18 months after pub­li­ca­tion of the award reduces the statu­to­ry val­ue by 0.3 ct/kWh (§ 54 (1) EEG 2027).
• The pay­ment autho­ri­sa­tion pro­ce­dure (§ 38a EEG 2023) with its 26-month dead­line is abol­ished.
• The require­ment that bid­der and oper­a­tor be iden­ti­cal is dropped: agri­v­oltaics awards can be trans­ferred after the award – eas­ing turnkey projects and the entry of insti­tu­tion­al investors.
• Bids are tied to the named land par­cel, but agri­v­olta­ic awards may be used flex­i­bly across the agri­v­olta­ic and peat­land-PV sites named in the bid (§ 38 (1) no. 1 ©).

What does the grid connection package mean for agrivoltaic projects?

The grid con­nec­tion pack­age (cab­i­net deci­sion of 29 July 2026) intro­duces loca­tion-based steer­ing in grid con­ges­tion hot spots and speeds up grid con­nec­tions:

• In regions that fore­see­ably can­not absorb addi­tion­al wind or solar feed-in, com­pen­sa­tion for cur­tail­ment is dropped – capped at 20 % of annu­al gen­er­a­tion (18 % in wind pri­or­i­ty areas) and lim­it­ed to 6 years.
• Grid capac­i­ty will be assessed on typ­i­cal feed-in pro­files rather than peak feed-in.
• Grid oper­a­tors may pri­ori­tise con­nec­tion requests and reserve capac­i­ty.

In prac­tice: grid com­pat­i­bil­i­ty should be assessed before secur­ing land and sub­mit­ting a bid. Ylek­tra already includes the grid sit­u­a­tion in its site analy­sis. The details of the grid con­nec­tion pack­age are based on the fed­er­al government’s press release.

Do agrivoltaic systems have to meet the ecological minimum criteria?

No. Under § 38 (1) no. 4 EEG 2027, the eco­log­i­cal min­i­mum cri­te­ria (§ 37 (1a)) apply only to stan­dard ground-mount­ed sites under § 37 (1) no. 1 or 2. Agri­v­oltaics is exempt – agri­cul­tur­al dual use counts as a suf­fi­cient eco­log­i­cal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion in its own right.

3. Planning law & privileged status

When is an agrivoltaic system privileged under § 35 (1) no. 9 of the German Building Code (BauGB)?

Since Decem­ber 2023, agri­v­olta­ic sys­tems in the out­er zone (Außen­bere­ich) have been priv­i­leged under strict con­di­tions:

• The land must be arable land or grass­land (as defined in the EEG).
• There must be a spa­tial and func­tion­al con­nec­tion to an agri­cul­tur­al or forestry busi­ness.
• The foot­print must not exceed 25,000 m² (2.5 ha).
• Only one sys­tem may be oper­at­ed per farm­stead or busi­ness loca­tion.
• After use ends, dis­man­tling includ­ing unseal­ing is manda­to­ry.

Our guide Agri­v­oltaics per­mit­ting under Sec­tion 35 BauGB explains the details.

What does “spatial and functional connection” mean?

The spa­tial con­nec­tion must exist to the main build­ings of the farm. A func­tion­al con­nec­tion is recog­nised where there are syn­er­gies, e.g. pro­tec­tion against ero­sion, frost or hail pro­vid­ed by the mod­ules.

Are there privileges along transport routes (§ 35 (1) no. 8 BauGB)?

Yes. Agri­v­oltaics can be priv­i­leged along motor­ways or rail­way lines (at least two main tracks). The dis­tance must not exceed 200 metres from the edge of the car­riage­way, and glare must be ruled out.

What applies to systems that are not privileged?

If the sys­tem does not qual­i­fy (e.g. larg­er than 2.5 ha or no link to a farm), the munic­i­pal­i­ty must cre­ate plan­ning law. This is usu­al­ly done with a project-relat­ed devel­op­ment plan (§ 12 BauGB), which can des­ig­nate uses such as a “spe­cial area for agri­v­oltaics”.

How do spatial planning objectives affect agrivoltaics?

PV sys­tems are often exclud­ed in pri­or­i­ty areas (e.g. for agri­cul­ture). For agri­v­oltaics, how­ev­er, a tar­get devi­a­tion pro­ce­dure (§ 6 of the Fed­er­al Spa­tial Plan­ning Act, ROG) can be promis­ing, because agri­cul­tur­al use is main­tained and renew­able ener­gy is in the “over­rid­ing pub­lic inter­est” (§ 2 EEG).

4. Planning & permitting

Is a building permit required?

Yes, agri­v­oltaics almost always requires a build­ing per­mit, usu­al­ly under the sim­pli­fied pro­ce­dure of the respec­tive state build­ing code (e.g. § 66 LBauO in Rhineland-Palati­nate). Sys­tems are exempt only if a devel­op­ment plan already con­tains exact pro­vi­sions on loca­tion, size etc., which is rare in prac­tice.

What must the agricultural use concept contain?

For a sys­tem to be recog­nised as agri­v­oltaics, a use con­cept must be sub­mit­ted (under DIN SPEC 91434, or DIN SPEC 91492 for live­stock). It must show, for exam­ple, that the agri­cul­tur­al yield is at most one third below the ref­er­ence yield and that agri­cul­tur­al use pre­dom­i­nates. The con­cept is usu­al­ly agreed with the region­al cham­ber of agri­cul­ture.

What are the nature conservation requirements?

Con­struc­tion is an inter­ven­tion in nature and land­scape (§ 14 of the Fed­er­al Nature Con­ser­va­tion Act, BNatSchG). A nature con­ser­va­tion report must be pre­pared, and unavoid­able impacts must be off­set (com­pen­sa­tion mea­sures). Even for priv­i­leged projects, a secu­ri­ty deposit for dis­man­tling and com­pen­sa­tion is cus­tom­ary.

Is an environmental impact assessment (EIA) required?

As a rule, agri­v­olta­ic sys­tems are not sub­ject to a manda­to­ry EIA. A pre­lim­i­nary EIA screen­ing may be required only in excep­tion­al cas­es for very large sys­tems if sig­nif­i­cant adverse envi­ron­men­tal effects are expect­ed. A per­mit under immis­sion con­trol law is not required either. A species pro­tec­tion assess­ment is, how­ev­er, manda­to­ry.

Which operator models exist?

There are three com­mon mod­els:

1. The farmer builds and oper­ates the sys­tem.
2. Ylek­tra leas­es pri­vate farm­land, builds the sys­tem and the farmer con­tin­ues to cul­ti­vate the land.
3. A munic­i­pal­i­ty leas­es its own farm­land to Ylek­tra and the farmer con­tin­ues to cul­ti­vate the land.

Landown­ers will find more answers in our land lease FAQ.

Which certifications are required?

Depend­ing on site, sys­tem type and per­mit­ting route, agri­v­olta­ic projects require var­i­ous cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and evi­dence on four lev­els:

1. Tech­ni­cal cer­ti­fi­ca­tions

• Mod­ule, invert­er and sys­tem cer­tifi­cates accord­ing to applic­a­ble IEC/EN stan­dards
• Struc­tur­al ver­i­fi­ca­tion of the mount­ing sys­tem (DIN/EN stan­dards, wind and snow load zones)
• Elec­tri­cal and safe­ty cer­tifi­cates accord­ing to VDE reg­u­la­tions
• Grid con­nec­tion and pro­tec­tion con­cepts includ­ing tech­ni­cal approvals

2. Con­struc­tion and per­mit­ting doc­u­ments

• Build­ing appli­ca­tion doc­u­ments includ­ing site plans, access and struc­tur­al analy­sis
• Envi­ron­men­tal, nature and species pro­tec­tion reports (depend­ing on site)
• Fire pro­tec­tion and safe­ty con­cepts (where required)

3. EEG and priv­i­leged-sta­tus evi­dence

• Proof of priv­i­leged sta­tus under build­ing and plan­ning law
• EEG com­pli­ance doc­u­men­ta­tion
• Doc­u­men­ta­tion for remu­ner­a­tion mod­els and eli­gi­bil­i­ty

4. Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the agri­cul­tur­al use con­cept (DIN SPEC 91434)

• Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the agri­v­olta­ic oper­at­ing con­cept under DIN SPEC 91434 to for­mal­ly recog­nise agri­cul­ture as the pri­ma­ry use
• Proof of per­ma­nent agri­cul­tur­al use in line with the tech­ni­cal sys­tem lay­out
• Com­pli­ance with the agri­cul­tur­al require­ments for agri­v­olta­ic sys­tems

Recur­ring evi­dence:

• annu­al evi­dence (oper­a­tions, use, cul­ti­va­tion)
• or every three years (struc­tured re-cer­ti­fi­ca­tion / review accord­ing to the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion scheme)

Ylektra’s role: Ylek­tra coor­di­nates and car­ries out all cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and evi­dence process­es – includ­ing the DIN SPEC cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the agri­cul­tur­al con­cept and the ongo­ing annu­al or three-year­ly evi­dence. This secures reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance over the long term and sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly reduces project risk for oper­a­tors, investors and landown­ers.

How long does it take from project development to construction?

Project dura­tion is dri­ven pri­mar­i­ly by per­mit­ting and depends on the legal clas­si­fi­ca­tion (priv­i­leged vs. not priv­i­leged) and site com­plex­i­ty. Based on real project devel­op­ment process­es, the fol­low­ing time frames apply:

Priv­i­leged agri­v­olta­ic projects
➡️ approx. 8 to 14 months from project devel­op­ment to start of con­struc­tion

Dri­vers:

• sim­pli­fied per­mit­ting process­es
• struc­tured doc­u­men­ta­tion
• faster coor­di­na­tion with author­i­ties
• stan­dard­ised project archi­tec­ture

Non-priv­i­leged agri­v­olta­ic projects
➡️ approx. 16 to 24 months from project devel­op­ment to start of con­struc­tion

Dri­vers:

• extend­ed per­mit­ting and review pro­ce­dures
• addi­tion­al envi­ron­men­tal and plan­ning process­es
• greater pro­ce­dur­al com­plex­i­ty
• longer coor­di­na­tion loops with author­i­ties