Political drivers of the adoption of solar parks at the local level: The case study of Bavaria

Solar power has witnessed the largest cost reduction among renewable energy technologies over the past two decades. While rooftop solar panels continue to be an important form of harnessing solar power, large scale solar parks have seen rapid diffusion in recent years and are considered to be indispensable for low-carbon energy transitions. Whereas ambitious renewable energy goals are typically defined at supranational and national levels, the implementation of projects such solar parks directly affects the living area of a large number of local communities raising the questions of how local political support for such projects gets mobilized and sustained. This paper focuses on the German federal state of Bavaria which has recorded the largest number of solar parks in Germany. We ask how the the political party composition of municipality councils and the general political mood of voters at the municipality level (green vs. far-right votes) affect the willingness of local decision-makers to give the approval for the construction of solar parks. The time period of our study covers two local legislative terms 2008-2014 and 2014-2020. We find that the composition of the municipality council has a strong effect on the construction of solar parks. The high share of social-democratic members in the municipality council has a strong positive effect while the high share of independent members highly decreases the probability that the municipality will host a solar park. We also find that the high share of far-right populist votes does not negatively affect the construction of solar parks. Our analysis yields important new insights into multi-level political dynamics which shape the local decisions to approves large scale energy projects such as solar parks.