Concentrated land ownership favors mega solar plants
Land concentration predicts more large solar projects across six European countries, according to Bank of Spain research published October 16, 2026. A one-standard-deviation increase is associated with 62.4 percent more solar hectares.
Larger parcels favor larger plants
David Cuberes, Aitor Lacuesta, Carlos Moreno-Pérez and Daniel Oto-Peralías analyze Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Using 5 × 5 km cells, they measure concentration as the share of land in parcels of at least 10 hectares.
A one-standard-deviation increase predicts a 67.6 percent increase in mega photovoltaic plant probability relative to its mean.
Mega plants cover at least 50 hectares.
The relationship is positive across all six countries.
Expected solar area increases by 62.4 percent, with 95.9 percent for mega plants and 8.3 percent for smaller installations.
The pooled relationship with large wind park presence is statistically indistinguishable from zero; expected turbine counts increase by 17.4 percent.
Fewer owners, fewer consent barriers
Solar projects require contiguous land and near-unanimous owner consent; wind turbines allow more flexible siting and continued farming.
The dataset contains 261 million parcels, but parcel size proxies for ownership because owner identities are confidential.
At 500 m resolution, the solar estimate is 58.9 percent versus 12.1 percent for wind.
Historical records from Spain in 2005 and France in 2017 support the solar result.
Farm operating size loses statistical significance alongside cadastral size.
Irrigation weakens the solar relationship in Spain.
Deployment gains, concentrated rents
The authors identify a trade-off between faster solar deployment and rents concentrated among large landowners.
Host communities bear local costs without broadly sharing lease income.
They propose considering land pooling, cooperative leases and agrivoltaics to widen participation.