Recording and presentation of the webinar from 2 February 2022

How can local authorities participate in the revenues from solar parks and what exactly needs to be considered? These questions were addressed in a joint webinar held by the German Association of the New Energy Economy (bne), the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB) and the law firm Becker Büttner Held (BBH) on 2 February 2022 with over 570 participants.

Dr Gerd Landsberg, Managing Director of the DStGB, and bne Managing Director Robert Busch emphasised in their introduction that more participation is of central importance for the acceptance of the energy transition. In the case of new solar parks, the local communities may be offered a total of 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour for the amount of electricity actually fed into the grid. This provides the municipalities with annual, easily plannable and freely usable income.

Afterwards, lawyer Jens Vollprecht (bbh) presented a model contract that should make it easier for all stakeholders to apply municipal participation in a legally secure manner. The free sample contract published by the bne at the beginning of December 2021. The participation of local communities applies both to subsidised solar parks, which are realised e.g. via the EEG tenders, and to solar parks that are implemented as PPA projects ("Power Purchase Agreement") without subsidies. "In order to ensure legal certainty for all parties involved, it is important to comply exactly with the requirements of Section 6 of the EEG. Such an agreement on municipal participation in the operation of a solar park may only be concluded after the development plan has been approved. This should rule out any connection between financial support and approval," emphasised Vollprecht.

Finn-Christopher Brüning, Head of the Energy and Municipal Economy Department at the DStGB, and Bernhard Strohmayer, Head of Renewable Energies at the bne, then answered questions from the participants and outlined the arguments in favour of the model contract from their point of view.

Here Join us for the latest webinar from 2023, which deals with the extended regulations of §6 EEG 2023.

Presentations for download

• Jens Vollprecht, Attorney at Law, Becker Büttner Held
• Finn-Christopher Brüning, Head of Division, German Association of Towns and Municipalities