German Bundesrat calls for legal basis to build solar power plants in flood protection areas

The Bundesrat, the parliamentary assembly of the German federal states, has submitted a bill to the German parliament (Bundestag) to allow the construction of ground-mounted solar power plants in flood protection areas.
At present, the country’s Water Resources Act (WHG) only permits construction measures by way of exception and subject to strict requirements in such areas, in which the seepage or runoff of water must not be impeded if possible in the event of flooding. Even a case-by-case assessment for a PV project is thus virtually impossible in practice. According to reasons chapter of the amendment, such assessments are to be permitted in the future, because ground-mounted systems normally do not impede either the seepage or the runoff of water. At the same time, however, the expansion of installed PV capacity is in the overriding interest and therefore a corresponding legal privilege is required.
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