Preliminary design for photovoltaics: grid, nature, rezoning, construction and more
Preliminary design for photovoltaics: we prepare the grid concept, infrastructure and specialist contributions that carry your PV project through to the permit.
After the pre-project development, your photovoltaic project becomes concrete in the preliminary design. From the fundamental decision, a design emerges that brings together land, plant technology, grid connection and environmental effects. This applies to ground-mounted plants as well as agri-PV, where the agricultural use of the land is retained. Our biology team provides detailed nature conservation surveys and an ecological assessment that helps minimise interventions in nature and landscape. A good design is structured so that it can be reviewed in the procedure: site plan, layout, cable routes, transformer locations, access roads and construction areas are coordinated, so that authorities, the grid operator and landowners have the same planning basis in front of them. For agri-PV, DIN SPEC 91434 serves as guidance; it distinguishes elevated systems from 2.1 metres clear height from ground-level ones and limits the loss of land for agriculture.
Whether land can be zoned for a PV plant is governed by the spatial planning of the federal states. Zoning categories, area limits and exclusion areas differ depending on the federal state: some states limit the size of contiguous zoned areas, prefer sites near existing infrastructure such as substations and exclude nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites. For the rezoning procedure (Umwidmung, Austria), we prepare specialist contributions on climate relevance, landscape and nature conservation, for agri-PV as well as for ground-mounted plants. The procedural question also belongs in the design: whether a PV plant is subject to an EIA or must be assessed together with other projects depends on the project categories, thresholds and cumulation rules of the UVP-G 2000; a spatial or substantive connection with a wind farm may be relevant to the cumulation assessment. That plants can usually be dismantled after a service life of around 30 years and the land can be used again afterwards is a point that often comes up in the procedure.
Technically, the preliminary design clarifies the grid connection: we coordinate the grid concept with the grid operator. The requirements for grid behaviour depend on the power class; the technical and organisational rules (TOR) for generators distinguish types A to D for this. How well the connection point is utilised is shown by the load profile analysis for hybrid parks, especially if a battery storage system is added later. The civil engineering concept covers access roads, cabling, transformer stations and temporary logistics areas. For the noise permit for PV central inverters, we measure the sound immissions where required.
From a nature conservation perspective, layout and construction method also count in the design. Sufficient row spacing, a limited coverage ratio, foundations that are as reversible as possible, unsealed paths and a permeable enclosure reduce interventions; construction time should lie outside breeding seasons. What suits a site depends on its previous use and the species present, which is why the surveys come at the start of the design. Anyone who wants to combine photovoltaics with wind power will find the wind side in the pre-project development for wind farms and in the preliminary design for wind farms.
