Germany's drained peatlands mapped for large-scale solar

Fraunhofer researchers estimate up to 268 GW of solar could sit on degraded German peatland without touching productive farmland.

Fraunhofer ISE has published an assessment of how much solar power could be built on Germany's degraded peatlands. The study identifies a technical potential of 134 GW to 268 GW across roughly 334,500 hectares of drained peatland previously used for agriculture and not under nature-conservation restrictions. The work was carried out with the University of Greifswald, Humboldt University of Berlin, the University of Göttingen, and law firm Becker Büttner Held, under the federally funded MoorPower initiative led by Agnes Katharina Wilke.

The context matters. Around 70% of Germany's formerly intact peatlands have been drained for farming, and these degraded areas now account for just under 7% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions. A 2023 reform of the Renewable Energy Sources Act made PV on re-wetted peatlands eligible for support, and Germany aims to re-wet 50,000 hectares of degraded peatland each year. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania alone holds more than 85,000 hectares of eligible degraded land.

If realized, this pairs clean generation with land already spoiled for agriculture, avoiding the food-versus-energy tension that dogs ground-mounted solar. Solar on re-wetted peat could add capacity while cutting the emissions that draining causes. That is a route to cheaper, more available clean power without displacing crops.

The caveats are firm. This is a technical potential, not deployed capacity. Researchers stress only drained, severely degraded land should be developed, excluding protected sites. A guidance document now exists for developers and authorities, but industry interest reportedly cooled after early attention.

Source: pv magazine