Hybrid park planning for PV plants: making the best use of land and grid
Hybrid park planning for PV plants makes efficient use of land and grid capacity and supports your photovoltaic projects through the permit procedure.
We combine your agri-PV or ground-mounted plants so that investment costs fall and yields rise. We support the permit procedure efficiently along the way. Whether a combination of wind power and photovoltaics, with or without a storage solution: we support you from the site assessment through the strategic environmental assessment to submission, coordinated with all relevant authorities.
In hybrid park planning, the shared grid connection is the focus: a hybrid plant uses the same grid connection for several types of generation. The connection including the substation only has to be built once, and its costs are spread across several technologies. Photovoltaics delivers mainly at midday, wind often when the sun is weaker. The combination therefore smooths the feed-in profile. If both technologies rarely reach peak output at the same time, the connection can be sized smaller than the sum of the generating capacities. Transformer and substation can then also be dimensioned smaller. How much the PV modules are shaded by wind turbines and what savings on the connection are possible must be calculated for each project. Land and grid infrastructure are thus used far more efficiently than with separate parks, and the expansion of renewable energy needs fewer interventions.
Land is also shared: the combination of PV and wind achieves a much more efficient use of land and grid than separate parks. A battery storage system absorbs midday peaks and releases the energy later, for example in the evening or at night. Whether this reduces curtailment or feed-in at negative prices and makes usable volumes that would otherwise be lost depends on storage size, operating strategy and marketing. Available grid capacity also decides early on the layout of a hybrid park. Such concepts are in demand particularly in regions where the grid is heavily loaded and connection requests are restricted. In permitting, wind, photovoltaics and storage have so far mostly been separate procedures. The Renewable Energy Expansion Acceleration Act, partly already in force and mostly applicable from 1 January 2027, provides for a consolidated permit procedure for renewable generating plants and energy storage; whether and how it applies to a hybrid project depends on the individual case, for example on whether an EIA is required, and on the provinces' implementing acts. Duration and course differ by federal province and authority. If PV areas are close to a wind turbine, possible hazards must be examined for each project; the protective measures required follow from the permit decisions and the safety concept, and battery storage is considered separately in the fire brigade's fire protection requirements. Technically, where there are several types of generation behind one grid connection point, the classification under the technical rules for power generators must be determined on the basis of the specific plant configuration and the relevant capacity figures. It is therefore worth coordinating the concept with the authorities early in hybrid park planning and relating the expert reports of the technologies to one another.
Which feed-in capacity is possible at the grid connection point is clarified by the load profile analysis for PV plants and hybrid parks. The electrical side is planned by the electrical engineering design for PV plants. If a wind farm already stands at the site, read the hybrid park planning for wind farms. In Germany, urban land-use planning for solar parks is generally the first step for ground-mounted PV. Our solution for agricultural land is the EWS Sonnenfeld®.
