The solar boom in Germany is putting farmers under increasing pressure due to Investors often acquire large areas in order to build solar parks on them. This makes arable land scarce and expensive for the farmers (Tagesschau: 05.06.23).
The solar boom in Germany: Farmers under pressure – dramatic effects on farmland and rents
Large investors are increasingly buying farmland at prices that farmers cannot afford. The effects are drastic: Between 2010 and 2020, the prices for agricultural land in Germany rose by an average of 126 percent. The scarce availability of free arable land is driving prices up further. As a result, lease prices have also risen significantly, by an average of 62 percent, according to the Federal Information Center for Agriculture.
Bild: Matthias Eckert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Battle for land: Farmers see themselves under pressure from the solar boom
The attractiveness of solar parks as a profitable investment attracts not only investors but also energy suppliers. One example is the energy supplier EnBW, which offers areas in eastern Germany for the construction of thousands of solar panels. Thorsten Jörs, project manager of the photovoltaic division at EnBW, sees a new solar boom imminent and plans to triple solar expansion in the coming years. The company aims to realize ten to 15 solar parks per year. To achieve this goal, available land is required. For this reason, more and more companies are buying up farmland.
Silvia Bender, State Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture in Berlin, views this trend with great concern. She observes how non-agricultural investors are crowding into the land market and making life increasingly difficult for the farmers. There is a risk that farms will increasingly be squeezed out by solar parks.
Agriculture under threat – non-agricultural investors threaten farmers
Brandenburg’s Minister of Agriculture, Axel Vogel, expresses concerns. Minister Vogel has been planning a new agricultural structure law for several years, but so far without success. He notes that agricultural land law is practically irrelevant and there are only a few cases where it is actually applied. At the same time, the agricultural structure is changing dramatically, as more and more land is being taken over by non-agricultural investors.
To counteract this trend, Vogel emphasizes the need for instruments such as price regulation to protect individual farmers. When growing food ends up being less profitable than generating solar power, it becomes increasingly difficult for traditional farmers to survive.
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