Eligible land: where can a solar park be built in Germany?

In the offer document for a solar park, the land usually takes one line: district, hectares, perhaps the note "EEG-eligible". Behind that word lies a test that decides the revenue side of the whole project. The Renewable Energy Sources Act does not pay for every ground-mounted system. It lists exhaustively where a system must stand in order to take part in the tender or to claim the statutory value. The industry calls this list the Flächenkulisse, the land catalogue.

For investors this is not a detail of project development. The land category is a property the system keeps for its entire support period, and it is determined on a reference date that may lie years before you come in. We go through what the Act requires, where it differs from planning law and how you can recognise the category of a specific project.

Why does the land decide support and permission at the same time?

Every site raises two questions, answered by two different statutes. The first: may anything be built here? That is governed by the Building Code, usually through a municipal development plan (Bebauungsplan), in a few cases through a statutory privilege for the undeveloped outer area. The second: does electricity from this site receive a payment under the EEG? That is governed by the EEG with a catalogue of its own.

The two answers do not automatically match. A municipality can plan a solar park on good arable land outside every category; it may then be built but receives no market premium. Conversely, eligible land is of no use while building rights are missing. A project needs both, or a revenue plan that works without the EEG. How the market premium itself works is explained in Direct marketing and the market premium: how a solar park earns its money.

On which land does a solar park receive an EEG payment?

The catalogue is in section 37(1) EEG 2023 and applies to the first-segment tenders, that is, to ground-mounted systems above one megawatt. It has three parts: systems on other built structures such as landfill bodies or noise barriers (no. 1), ordinary ground-mounted systems on nine types of land (no. 2) and the special solar systems such as agri-PV, car-park, peatland and floating systems (no. 3). One condition applies to all land under no. 2: it must not be drained peatland.

The Act does not define the term conversion site (Konversionsfläche). In 2010 the EEG clearing house recommended asking whether the earlier use seriously impaired the ecological value of the land, on more than half of the area (recommendation 2010/2). Fallow land on which a business once stood does not qualify by itself on that reading. For this category it is therefore worth asking for the expert report the developer relies on.

Agri-PV runs through the third part of the catalogue and has technical requirements of its own; the details are in Investing in agrivoltaics: dual land use, revenues and tax leverage at a glance. Systems on rewetted peatland and on water bodies are covered in Peatland PV and floating PV as a direct investment: support, EEG 2027 and the evidence the revenue depends on.

What applies along motorways and railways: 500 metres or 200 metres?

Both figures are correct; they are in different statutes and answer different questions. The 500 metres are the EEG support corridor. The 200 metres are the privilege under the Building Code, the zone in which a solar park in the outer area is permitted without a development plan. In conversation the two strips often merge into one.

Three consequences matter when a project is checked. First, only the motorway counts; a federal highway opens neither zone. Second, the Building Code's notion of a railway is narrower: a single-track branch line can open the support corridor but not the privilege. Third, the EEG refers to the privileged land first and names the 500 metres as a second route, for which the location at the time of the plan resolution is decisive. Outside the 200-metre strip, this category therefore always comes with a development plan.

What are disadvantaged areas, and what may the federal states exclude there?

Disadvantaged areas (benachteiligte Gebiete) are agricultural regions that EU farm law classifies as such because of difficult conditions, for example altitude, slope or poor soils. The EEG refers to two delimitations: the older Community list of 1986 and the newer area designation under Article 32 of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 (section 3 no. 7 EEG 2023). It is enough for the land to lie in one of the two. A threshold in soil quality points, as often quoted, is not in the EEG.

Until May 2024 a state first had to open this land for the tender through an ordinance of its own. The Solar Package I reversed the direction: arable land and grassland in disadvantaged areas have since been admitted nationwide, and a state can now only block them under conditions (section 37c EEG 2023). That is possible once ground-mounted systems occupy more than 1 percent of the state's agricultural land, from 2031 more than 1.5 percent. The states may also exempt landscape protection areas and nature parks.

According to the Federal Network Agency, no state has issued such an ordinance so far (as of 05.10.2026). For a project that already holds an award, a later ordinance is irrelevant; for a project that still has to bid, it is a risk worth knowing. There is also a nationwide brake: once ground-mounted systems with more than 80 gigawatts are operating on agricultural land, counted from 2023, bids for such land are no longer admissible; from 2031 the threshold is 177.5 gigawatts (section 37(4)).

Which land is excluded, and which nature criteria apply?

For ordinary ground-mounted systems, all drained peatland is excluded. Arable land and grassland in disadvantaged areas also drop out if they lie in a Natura 2000 site, are a protected habitat type or a statutorily protected biotope, or have been designated as a nature reserve, national park, national natural monument or core and buffer zone of a biosphere reserve. Whatever the category, no ground-mounted system obtains a payment entitlement if the land was a nature reserve or national park when the plan was resolved (section 38a(1) no. 5(b)).

Since the bid date of 1 August 2024 there has been an additional operating requirement. Ordinary ground-mounted systems must meet at least three of five criteria (section 37(1a)):

• The modules take up no more than 60 percent of the project's ground area.
• The land is managed under a maintenance concept, with no more than two cuts a year or adapted grazing.
• Animals can cross the site; from a side length of 500 metres, migration corridors for large mammals are required.
• Biotope elements are created on at least 10 percent of the area.
• Operation does without pesticides and fertilisers, and cleaning uses only degradable agents.

For the investor these are ongoing duties, not one-off ones. Whoever chose the maintenance concept or soil-friendly operation must prove compliance to the grid operator again every five years (section 38a(3) sentence 5). For smaller systems outside the tender, the same list applies where commissioning takes place from 1 November 2025 (section 48(6)). Which three criteria a project has chosen should be traceable in the operations management contract.

Which date decides the land category?

Almost always the day on which the municipality resolved to draw up or amend the development plan. On that day the land must have been sealed, must have been a conversion site, must have been used as arable land or must have lain within the strip. What happens afterwards no longer changes the classification. That protects a project against later changes, but it also means that the category can only be proven from documents of that time.

Nobody inspects the land on site for the bid itself. The bidder submits self-declarations, for instance that the land is not in a protected area (section 37(2)). The actual check follows after commissioning: the grid operator examines, among other things, the type of land, and until then the payment entitlement is subject to a resolutory condition (section 38(2) no. 2, section 38a(3) and (4)). If the classification does not survive that check, the payment itself is in question.

A second point is easily overlooked: an award is not firmly tied to the plot for which the bid was made. It may be allocated to a system on other admissible land (section 38a(1) no. 3(a)). If the site does not match the bid's plots at least in part, the applicable value falls by 0.3 cents per kilowatt hour, for the entire support period (section 54(2)). Whether the offer document calculates with the full or the reduced value is worth a question. The deadlines that run after the award are explained in The commissioning date of a solar park: which date fixes the tariff, the deadlines and the depreciation.

When does a solar park need a development plan?

Almost always. The larger share of ground-mounted parks is built on the basis of a development plan that the municipality draws up for the project. Without a plan, only two cases are permitted in the outer area: the 200-metre strip along motorways and double-track main lines, and special solar systems next to a farm with no more than 25,000 square metres of ground area and one system per farmstead (section 35(1) no. 8(b) and no. 9 BauGB). The permitting procedure remains even there.

For the check this means: the support category says nothing about how far building rights have progressed. A project "in the 500-metre corridor" may still be at the start of a planning procedure. How that procedure runs and which stage can be regarded as secured is covered in Grid connection, easement, building rights: how to tell whether a direct investment has truly secured its site; what the land contract has to regulate, in The land lease of a solar park from the investor's side: why it is a Mietvertrag, what the rent costs per kilowatt and how you step into the contract.

On which land are solar parks actually built?

The catalogue has many lines; the market uses few. We evaluated the Federal Network Agency's statistics by type of land for all eleven bid dates since the start of the EEG 2023, from 1 March 2023 to 1 July 2026. Around 23,500 megawatts were awarded in that period.

Three things can be read from this. The strips and the disadvantaged areas together carry around 86 percent of the awards; all other categories are niches. The conversion site, long the model image of a solar park, comes to 3.5 percent. And the special solar systems are growing: from under 3 percent in 2023 to just under 14 percent in the two dates of 2026. For the strips, the statistics do not separate the privileged 200-metre strip from the remainder up to 500 metres; how much of it managed without a development plan cannot be derived from them.

The disadvantaged areas are strongly concentrated by region. Of the roughly 9,600 megawatts awarded on such land since March 2023, just under 53 percent are in Bavaria and around 11 to 12 percent each in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. Anyone holding several systems of this category therefore quickly has a regional cluster in the holdings as well, with similar weather and a similar grid situation.

What does it mean if land is outside the catalogue?

The park can still be built, provided building rights are in place. It simply does not take part in the tender and has no applicable value as a floor. Revenue then comes from the market alone or from a power purchase agreement with an offtaker. That is a different risk profile: the market premium absorbs falling market values down to the award value, whereas a park without an award bears them itself. How such a contract is structured and what it secures is covered in Understanding PPAs: how power purchase agreements make solar park revenues predictable.

For systems of up to one megawatt, which need no award, a separate and very similar catalogue applies in section 48(1) sentence 1 EEG 2023. It also contains the 500-metre strip, sealed land, conversion sites and disadvantaged areas, each in connection with a development plan (no. 3(c)), plus the land privileged under the Building Code (no. 6). An offer document that mentions "EEG remuneration" should say which number it relies on.

What does the EEG 2027 draft change in the land catalogue?

Little in substance. The government draft leaves the catalogue of land in place and only adjusts references to EU law. The five nature criteria are tightened in wording, according to the explanatory memorandum without changing the requirements. What is new is that a project must be entered in the register before the bid date.

One change concerns the disadvantaged areas: an award for such land is in future to be usable only for a site in the same federal state. The memorandum states the purpose openly: a state's blocking ordinance should not be circumvented through an award from another state. The legislator therefore expects states to make use of the clause. What the draft changes in the market premium itself is covered in EEG 2027: what the refinancing contribution means for a solar park direct investment.

Which questions should you ask the provider about the land?

• Which letter of section 37(1) EEG does the project rely on, and which document proves it?
• When was the resolution to draw up the development plan passed, and how was the land used on that day?
• Is the system within the 200-metre strip or between 200 and 500 metres, and measured from which transport route?
• For conversion sites: is there an expert report on the prior impairment, and does it cover more than half of the area?
• For disadvantaged areas: which of the two area designations applies, and has a nearby protected area been ruled out?
• Does the system stand on the plots for which the bid was made, or does the 0.3 cent deduction apply?
• Which three nature criteria were chosen, who fulfils them in operation, and who bears the cost?
• Is the development plan in force, or does the project rely on a privilege?
• If there is no award: what does revenue consist of, and for how long is it contractually secured?

A provider who proves the category with a document has checked the land. Further warning signs are collected in How to tell a trustworthy provider of energy direct investments, and the remaining checkpoints of a direct investment in photovoltaics are shown in Investing in solar parks: revenues, costs and tax leverage at a glance.

How we check the land in our project check

We first assign every project to a land category and ask to see the proof: plan resolution, plots, an expert report where needed. We then check separately how far building rights have progressed, whether the site matches the bid and which nature criteria have to be met in operation. If the land is outside the catalogue, we assess the revenue plan without the EEG and say so openly. We give no return promises. If you would like a specific offer checked, you can bring it to a non-binding initial call.