Disadvantages are not always negative. For example, solar parks are promoted on agriculturally disadvantaged land. But how do you find these areas given the various valid definitions and heterogeneous data sets?
Since last week, the regulation "Solarpaket I" came into force. With the amendment of § 37c in the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), agriculturally disadvantaged areas are now generally eligible for the subsidization of ground-mounted PV plants, provided they are not located in an environmentally protected area. The federal states have an opt-out option if more than 1% (before 2031) or 1.5% (after 2031) of their agricultural land is used for PV installations. Link
Disadvantaged areas are entitled to compensation payments if they are used for agriculture because, for example, they are difficult to cultivate or yield low returns. The areas were initially determined under EU Directive 86/465/EEC ('old designation'). A redefinition of the areas under EU Regulation 1305/2013 ('new designation') came into force by 2020 at the latest. However, the EEG in § 3 sentence 7 defines areas as 'disadvantaged' if they were determined under either EU Directive 86/465/EEC or EU Regulation 1305/2013. Therefore, both designations remain relevant for the eligibility of ground-mounted PV systems. Link
For developers of ground-mounted PV plants, it is therefore not easy to determine whether potential sites for solar parks are located in a disadvantaged area. Bavaria and Saxony offer geodata for both designations, even excluding unsuitable protected areas. However, in other federal states, only one designation or none at all is available. In the end, developers often have to rely on the original 200-page EU document with the names of municipalities and hope that these municipalities still exist in the same form today. Link
Therefore, we have integrated the data from both the new and old designations into the dvlp.energy platform and indicated the corresponding legal basis. This enables a quick and efficient assessment of whether a new solar project is eligible for funding or not.
