German organizations outline new standards for agrivoltaics

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From pv magazine Germany

BSW-Solar, the German solar industry association, has revealed that 15 agricultural companies, solar businesses, research entities, and certification bodies have developed a new proposed standard for the construction of agrivoltaic projects.

The DIN SPEC 91434 standard was initially developed by experts from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the University of Hohenheim.

BSW-Solar Managing Director Carsten Körnig sees the establishment of new standards as an important prerequisite for accelerating the market development of agrivoltaics. He pointed to the innovation tenders that the German government is currently holding under the framework of the country's renewable energy law, the so-called EEG.

“In order to leverage scaling effects, regular tenders with a growing volume will also be necessary in the following years,” said Körnig.

The current regulatory provisions for the innovation tenders require the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) to work out definitions for what can be considered agrivoltaics. BSW-Solar suggests using the DIN SPEC 91434 standard as a basis for this.

The organizations behind DIN SPEC 91434 have presented the standard in “DIN SPEC 91434:2021-05 Agri-Photovoltaik-Anlagen – Anforderungen an die landwirtschaftliche Hauptnutzung,” which was recently published by Beuth. It lays down requirements for the main agricultural uses in agrivoltaic projects and includes standards for planning, operation, documentation, and operational monitoring.

In addition, there are measurement indicators for quality assurance test procedures. However, the paper does not look at conventional ground-mounted PV plants built on agricultural land, or solar greenhouses.

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