💨As shown in my last post swamps have a special place in our environment. Did you know that former swamps are actually responsible for approximately five percent of Germany’s total annual permission? Covering about 4 percent of Germany’s landmass, drained swaps contain and emit huge amounts of CO2 and more crucially N2O, which is 300 times more climate damaging than CO2. As they are now mostly used as agricultural land, the stored gases are released into the atmosphere.

📈So rewetting swamps and using them to produce clean, solar energy has plenty of advantages. It doesn’t only stop the emission of damaging gases but also helps us to move ahead with Germany’s energy transition. It even makes sense financially, as swamps don’t provide ideal ground for agricultural activities and the earnings from solar energy are higher.

🚜By the way, low fertility of agricultural ground is an absolute condition of using surfaces to set up photovoltaic systems. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern for example, the “Ackerzahl”, which indicates the fertility of farmland, must be 40 or below for PV systems to be installed. In Brandenburg the maximum number is even lower at 30. And with such low fertility, farming on these grounds normally is unprofitable, which makes them perfect to accelerate Germany’s energy transition.