© Adobe Stock/ todor

The outlook is sunny for the ongoing expansion of renewable energy: right in time for spring, the “Easter Package” announced by Minister Habeck is to step up the expansion of renewables – something we urgently need, judging by the stock-take of Germany’s climate action status. This provides not least for more solar energy on sites used for farming and boggy areas so far used for farming – in harmony with nature conservation. This was agreed by the Ministries for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Environment and Agriculture in mid-January.

“We are presenting a proposal today that can make a major contribution to the rollout of photovoltaics,” said Minister Habeck, and stressed the following point: “We expect this can result in up to 200 gigawatts in additional PV capacity being installed. That is a massive increase, as we currently have a total of just under 60 gigawatts of installed PV capacity. This will help us to fight global warming whilst taking account of the interests of agriculture and nature conservation.”

The Easter Package will feed this proposal into the provisions of the Renewable Energy Sources Act. Details are set out in a key issues paper. (PDF-Download, 288 KB).

Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke had this to say about the key issues paper: “The path to a climate-neutral energy supply offers fresh opportunities for rural areas. We want to design the necessary expansion of ground-mounted PV and agrivoltaics to be compatible with nature.” Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir also highlighted the advantages of agrivoltaics: “Agrivoltaics will enable our farmers both to make a contribution to the supply of renewable energy and to cultivate their land.”