BIODIV-SOLAR
Innovative concepts and establishment of demonstrators to improve reconciliation of photovoltaic systems, nature conservation and agriculture
Project Duration
09/2021 – 04/2025
Project Lead
Prof. Dr. Ralph Gottschalg
Prof. Dr. Sabine Tischew
Project Management
Sebastian Dittmann
Sandra Dullau
Funding
BMBF | 13FH133KX0
Project Motivation
The European Green Deal aims that Europe becomes the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. In this strategy, Photovoltaic (PV) is one of the key technologies to reduce significant greenhouse gas emissions. However, large ground-mounted PV power plants generate conflict between stakeholders interested in the same land.
Farmers are worried about losing land to grow crops and thus their income, conservationists are concerned about the dramatic loss of biodiversity, and energy producer wants to build profitable PV power plants. Therefore, we must unite all stakeholders to develop innovative and sustainable land-use strategies.
This interdisciplinary research project is a cooperative project of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences with five corporate partners to improve the capacity and biodiversity of photovoltaic systems.
The “Biodiversity” working group of Department 1 is developing seed mixtures from native wild plants to support species- and blossom-rich meadows. These will be tested in cooperation with solar park operators and testing various maintenance and management approaches.
In addition, the “Photovoltaics” working group of Department 6 is investigating energy management aspects in cooperation with PV module manufacturers. For this purpose, new types of PV modules and different elevations, as well as distances, are being tested, and an innovative measurement concept for monitoring PV test plants and abiotic parameters is being developed and implemented.
Project Aims
The project aims to develop an overall concept integrating improved PV capacity, biodiversity, and options for agricultural uses.
Within an interdisciplinary approach, the project will:
promote biodiversity, ecosystem services, and the capacity of photovoltaic systems
enable integration of compensatory measures caused by photovoltaic systems
offer options for agricultural uses of photovoltaic systems
develop a planning tool for biodiverse solar parks
Demonstrators
The project investigates six large commercial ground-mounted PV systems in Laubsdorf and Nebelin(Brandenburg), Neukirch (Saxony), Nienburg, Halle, and Kelbra (Saxony-Anhalt) and two AgriPVplus systems vertical mounted PV modules in Hohlstedt and Bernburg (Saxony-Anhalt).
Our Partners
The partners with whom we collaborate on this project
