Agri-PV: The Legal Status of Permitting and Subsidies in Germany 2026 — What Is Settled, What Remains Open
Only two years ago, agrivoltaics was a legal gamble in Germany: the state-aid approval of Solar Package I was pending, the subsidy framework was unclear, and whether a system qualified as agricultural dual use was decided case by case. That situation has turned around. Solar Package I has been in force since 16 May 2024, Agri-PV has its own tender segment, which reached a record level in March 2026, and CAP direct payments are regulated. This guide shows which legal questions have since been answered, which genuinely remain open in 2026 — and what both mean for you as a landowner before you commit to dual use.
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Key Takeaways
The fundamentals are settled: Solar Package I has been the law in force since 16 May 2024 (BGBl. 2024 I No. 151); Agri-PV counts as a special solar installation with its own tender segment (Section 37(1) No. 3 EEG).
The support scheme measurably works: In the tender of 1 March 2026, the special solar installations segment reached a record 59 awards and 439 megawatts (Federal Network Agency, 12 May 2026).
CAP payments regulated: If DIN SPEC 91434 is complied with, the land remains eligible and 85 percent of the area is counted — with classic ground-mounted PV, direct payments cease entirely.
Privilege up to 2.5 hectares: Farm-linked Agri-PV systems have not needed a development plan since 2023 (Section 35(1) No. 9 BauGB), only a building permit.
What remains open are questions of interpretation: inconsistent proof and administrative practice, the delimitation of qualifying uses, the holding link required for the privilege, and the subsidy framework from 2027.
For your rent: Agri-PV typically pays €1,000–3,000/ha per year, a classic solar park €3,000–5,000/ha. Whether the higher-paying option is possible on your land is shown by the free ENLAPA land check in seconds.
What Has Been Settled Since 2023/2024
Anyone who still reads that the legal situation of agrivoltaics is "unresolved" is reading an outdated account. The big questions of 2023 to 2025 have been answered:
| Legal question (as of 2025) | Status 2026 |
|---|---|
| State-aid approval of Solar Package I pending | Done: Solar Package I promulgated on 15 May 2024 (BGBl. 2024 I No. 151), in force since 16 May 2024 |
| Unclear subsidy framework for Agri-PV | Done: own tender segment for special solar installations with its own maximum bid (Section 37(1) No. 3 EEG), plus a premium for elevated Category I systems |
| Does the segment work in practice? | Yes, measurably: 59 awards with 439 megawatts in March 2026, a record; the ground-mounted tender as a whole was roughly twice oversubscribed (Federal Network Agency, 12 May 2026) |
| Do farmers lose CAP direct payments? | Regulated since the 2023 CAP reform: the land remains eligible, a flat 85 percent is counted, provided DIN SPEC 91434 is met and farming continues |
| Unclear treatment in planning law | Partly regulated: privilege for farm-linked systems up to 2.5 hectares in the outer zone (Section 35(1) No. 9 BauGB, since 2023); all other systems go through the land-use planning procedure |
The legal foundations in detail — the two system categories of DIN SPEC 91434, the land-loss caps of 10 and 15 percent and the 66-percent yield requirement — are explained in the foundational guide Agri-Photovoltaics: Agriculture and Energy. This article is about the layer above: how these rules are interpreted in permitting and subsidy practice, and where friction remains.
Permitting in 2026: Two Routes, One Bottleneck
Since 2023 there have been two separate routes to permitting an Agri-PV system:
- The privilege (Section 35(1) No. 9 BauGB): If the system stands on land belonging to an agricultural or forestry holding, is spatially and functionally assigned to it, stays below 2.5 hectares of footprint and is the holding's only such system, a building permit from the lower building authority is enough. The land-use planning procedure does not apply.
- The land-use planning procedure: Larger systems and systems without a link to a holding are treated like classic solar parks. The municipality must create planning law — a resolution to prepare a plan, a land-use plan amendment, a development plan — which typically takes one to two years and examines nature conservation, landscape, soil protection and access. The process in detail is described in the guide Ground-Mounted PV Approval 2026.
In both cases the bottleneck often lies not in planning law at all, but at the grid: without free capacity at the connection point, the best permit is worthless, and grid operators work through requests in order. In one case we documented, a grid connection request sat at position 99 of the waiting list, behind requests totalling 4,753 megawatts — around eight months of waiting. How the grid request and the project sequence fit together is shown in the guide Building a Solar Park 2026.
Which Use Is Recognised as Dual Use
The dual-use status stands or falls with the agricultural use under or between the modules. Practice has settled along clear lines:
Recognised:
- Grazing with livestock — cattle, sheep or goats under the modules count as agricultural production, and the animals take care of vegetation management at the same time.
- Arable and forage cropping — cultivation between or under the module rows counts as long as it demonstrably serves agricultural production; this also applies to energy crops under proper management.
- Flowering strips as a complement — combined with active use of the remaining land, biodiversity elements are generally accepted.
Not sufficient:
- Keeping chickens or pigs — neither counts as grazing livestock, and authorities regularly refuse to recognise them as dual use.
- Set-aside or pure compensation areas — without active farming there is neither subsidy eligibility nor dual-use status.
This delimitation is no formality: it determines EEG participation in the special solar installations segment, the 85-percent counting of CAP direct payments and, frequently, the building permit itself.
The Four Legal Questions That Genuinely Remain Open in 2026
1. DIN SPEC 91434 Is Not a Legal Norm — and Proof Practice Is Inconsistent
DIN SPEC 91434 is a private specification, not a law. It becomes binding only indirectly, because the EEG tender and the Direct Payments Ordinance refer to it and many permitting authorities require the farming concept it describes. What that means day to day is not regulated uniformly: which assessors are recognised, how often continued farming must be evidenced and how strictly the 66-percent yield requirement is checked varies between authorities. For operators this means ongoing documentation effort over the entire lifetime — and for projects an interpretation risk that classic ground-mounted PV does not have.
2. The Privilege Has Blurred Edges
Whether a system "serves the holding" and is spatially and functionally assigned to it is decided by the building authority case by case — the law names no fixed distance or assignment criteria. The limit of one system per holding also raises questions in practice, for instance for holdings with several sites. Anyone wanting to use the privilege should clarify the holding link with the authority before filing the building application, rather than defending it in objection proceedings.
3. Administrative Practice and State Law Remain a Patchwork
From the requirements for use concepts through spacing and height questions to the assessment of the landscape impact: permitting practice differs between federal states and even between neighbouring districts. A project that is permitted swiftly in one district can get stuck on additional conditions in the next. This is not specific to Agri-PV — the criteria for classic solar parks are also a matter of state law — but the additional layer of agricultural proof widens the authorities' discretion.
4. The Subsidy Framework From 2027
The German Solar Industry Association (BSW) has been warning since July 2026 about planned cuts to solar subsidies from 2027. If they come, they would affect developers' willingness to pay per project — but the expansion targets in Section 4 EEG (215 gigawatts by 2030) remain in place, and interest in suitable land stays high. For Agri-PV there is the added point that the specific maximum bids and premiums in the special solar installations segment are updated with the EEG determinations; anyone planning today should not build the economics on the support values of a single year.
What the Legal Situation Means for You as an Owner
The good news first: if you lease out your land, the permitting and proof risk is the project developer's business. The open questions of interpretation affect you mainly indirectly — as a longer project timeline until the first rent payment, and as a smaller circle of developers able to handle Agri-PV projects at all.
The more important decision comes before that: Agri-PV pays less. Typical rents are 1,000 to 3,000 euros per hectare per year, while a classic ground-mounted solar park usually pays 3,000 to 5,000 euros in 2026, up to roughly 5,500 euros at grid-close premium sites — the full ranges are in the guide Photovoltaic Lease Prices 2026. Our recommendation is therefore unchanged: Agri-PV makes sense for owners above all when a classic park is not permittable on the land, or when the land must remain in the holding. The full trade-off — rent, costs, farming effort, biodiversity — is covered in the guide Agri-PV Disadvantages 2026.
Checklist: Clarifying the Legal Status of Your Land
- Check basic suitability: Protected areas, regional planning and rough grid proximity are checked by the free ENLAPA land check in seconds — only if the classic option is ruled out does Agri-PV become the first choice.
- Clarify the holding link: For the privilege up to 2.5 hectares, the spatial and functional link to an agricultural or forestry holding is decisive — without it, every project goes through the municipality.
- Sound out the municipality: In the land-use planning procedure the municipal council decides; an early conversation shows whether dual use has tailwind or headwind locally.
- Ask for the proof concept: Have the developer show you how the farming concept and the ongoing evidence are organised — the subsidies and CAP payments of the entire term depend on them.
- Get the contract right: Continued farming, indexation and a decommissioning obligation with security belong in every contract; the clauses are explained in the guide Photovoltaic Lease Contract.
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion
The legal situation of agrivoltaics in Germany has fundamentally sorted itself out since 2024: Solar Package I in force, its own tender segment at record levels, CAP payments regulated, the privilege up to 2.5 hectares in place. What remains are questions of interpretation and proof — real, but manageable, and when you lease out, they are the developer's risk, not yours. For your decision, the comparison matters most: classic ground-mounted PV usually pays more rent with less proof effort. Check your land now for free with the ENLAPA land check or list your land to receive no-obligation offers from project developers — for classic PV as well as Agri-PV. How leasing arable land for solar works overall is shown in the overview Lease Land for a Solar Park.
Sources: German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) Sections 4, 37, 37c (gesetze-im-internet.de, as of August 2026); German Federal Building Code (BauGB) Section 35(1) No. 9; BGBl. 2024 I No. 151 of 15 May 2024; German CAP Direct Payments Ordinance; DIN SPEC 91434; Federal Network Agency, press release of 12 May 2026; German Solar Industry Association (BSW), release of 14 July 2026. This article does not constitute legal advice.