Germany, a hot spot for solar farming

The coming years, Vattenfall plans to commission around 500 megawatts of solar power and 300 megawatts of large batteries each year – exclusively in combination, and many times in the form of agri-PV,  the technology that enables solar power production to be combined with agriculture for better land use. Already in the first half of 2025, five new large-scale solar farms will be completed. 

“Today nothing is cheaper than solar, says Björn Piske, Head of Solar Development in Germany.  “In Germany, we need all the electricity generation we can get; for electric cars, for industry transformation, for heating homes etcetera. Even in combination with battery energy storage solar is the cheapest form of renewable power.”

“When I started my career in the solar business 17 years ago, the main markets for solar power in Europe were Spain and Italy. Of course these countries have more sun radiation than we do,  and at that time, it only made sense to invest there. Today, the efficiency of solar panels is so much higher, which makes also investments in Germany viable, and without any subsidies,” he says.

The capacity of the projected solar farms vary, from about 50 MW up to 240 MW, but they are always planned as hybrid power farms, meaning that the solar panels are combined with battery storage.

“Hybrid power farms have a number of advantages.  For example, grid capacity is almost always an issue and with batteries we can mitigate that and also provide a number of balancing and frequency services. Also, batteries help us shift the power in time. We want that because when the sun shines on our panels, it also shines on everyone else’s. So the batteries enable us to spread out the produced electricity over time to hours when it is best needed. Shifting the power a few hours is enough to make a big difference,” Piske says. 

For more information, read about the Hjuleberg hybrid-power farm in Sweden 

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Solar and agriculture 

Critics of solar farms argue that the panels takes up land space, and that this could be negative for the business of farmers. This is why a number of Vattenfall’s solar projects will be designed as agri-photovoltaic farms,  with enough space under and beside the panels to allow farming or animal keeping in the same area. Vattenfall commissioned its first pilot project Symbizon in the Netherlands in 2024. Already later the same year, the first full-scale agri-PV park in Germany, Tützpatz, was commissioned. In this 79 MW solar park in northern Germany, a significant portion is planned for poultry farming, potentially housing up to 15,000 chickens.

“The combination of solar farming and traditional farming makes the business case even more solid for farmers as it provides an additional source of income. This in turn contributes to the support of the community in the area. I believe that agri-photovaltaic is here to stay, and we intend to keep the leading position we have in this market,” Piske says.

Easy to hide

In all, Vattenfall has a project pipeline of 11 GW of combined solar and battery farms in Germany: Within a few years, a significant portion of these will hopefully be realised to help provide German homes and industries with renewable power. 

“The main drivers for the development is, again,  the low prize on the panels and the fact that the installation is so fast and easy compared to other power production methods. Also, solar is comparably inconspicuous – you can easily hide a 100 MW facility behind a hedge.” 

There is even a democracy aspect to solar energy Björn Piske says:

“Whenever we have a project we involve the community in the area, invite the public to participate in meetings and discussions and take their opinions into account and amend our designs. This way solar is probably the most democratic source of energy ,when you compare to how other energy projects are run in Germany.”

Read more anout solar power at Vattenfall