In 2021 the municipality Enkenbach-Alsenborn has commissioned igr with the site investigation for ground-mounted photovoltaic systems. In this way, the municipality wants to support the development of systems for power generation from solar energy and at the same time control them with the help of urban land use planning.

To create a sensible and legally secure planning, it was necessary to carry out an area-wide site investigation and to identify suitable areas.

In this site investigation, areas free of restrictions were first determined with the help of an exclusion procedure. Exclusion criteria such as settlement and traffic areas, distance to settlement areas, forest areas, nature reserves etc. played a role. Priority areas of regional planning were also considered, whereby the priority areas of agriculture were not generally excluded in the final evaluation, as otherwise there would be no potential for ground-mounted photovoltaic systems in the municipality Enkenbach-Alsenborn.

In the final evaluation, the areas were classified as good, conditionally and poorly suitable on the basis of criteria agreed with the municipality council, such as area cut, exposure, acreage, buffer to railroad lines/motorways (EEG) and the overlap with the priority areas for agriculture. The municipality council decided on April 20th to adopt the good and conditionally suitable areas (826 ha) in the partial land use plan for open-space photovoltaic plants. Since a development plan must be drawn up by the municipality for each system, the municipalities nevertheless continue to have the possibility to control the development of ground-mounted photovoltaic systems.

First of all, due to the partial overlapping of the areas with priority areas for agriculture, a deviation procedure is to be carried out for all areas.

T. Lüer, H. Jopp