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Site check: 5 things that decide before you start designing

27 October 2026 · 4 min read

Before the first crown goes into a design, public sources show what stands in the project's way. Five things decide whether it makes sense to continue.

Why start with a site check

Most projects that end up in a drawer do not fail because of the technology but because of the plot: an unsuitable area in the zoning plan, a protection zone across half the plot, protected soil or a grid line too far away. All of that can be found out from public sources before a design exists, and for a fraction of its price. The site check is therefore the first step we take for both storage and solar plants.

1. Zoning plan

The municipality's zoning plan assigns every area a specified use. Storage or a solar plant needs an area for technical infrastructure, production or energy; in an area for housing, recreation or in undeveloped land without the corresponding use, the building cannot be permitted. A change to the zoning plan is possible but takes years. In the check we read not only the main use but also the regulations – height, built-up ratio, conditions for fencing – and look at whether the area is conditional on a planning study or a regulatory plan.

2. Protection zones and utilities

An MV or HV line, a gas pipeline including a high-pressure one with its safety zone, a water main, sewer, long-distance cable, railway, road or aviation protection zones may run across the plot or right next to it. Each zone restricts what may be built in it, and each operator will assess the building. From the utility location statements and public maps we compile an overview of the zones and mark how much area is left for the technology. Relocating a line or a gas pipeline is possible, but expensive and lengthy – it is better to know about it at the start.

3. Soil, water and nature

Agricultural land of a higher protection class is difficult and expensive to remove from the fund; forest land and the forest protection zone restrict placement; a flood zone and its active zone practically rule the building out. Add to that protected areas, Natura 2000, significant landscape features, landscape character protection and heritage protection. The check shows which of these restrictions apply to the plot, which of them mean stop and which only a longer procedure.

4. Ownership, access and the cable route

The building needs the owner's consent, access from a public road with a junction and safe sight distances, and a cable route to the point of connection – often across other people's plots, where consent or an easement is needed. In the land register we check the owners, easements, liens and the plots the route will cross. A complicated ownership structure along the cable route can slow a project down more than the construction itself.

5. Proximity of the grid and connection level

From the distance to the nearest MV line and transformer station you can estimate whether the connection will end at low voltage or whether your own transformer station and an MV connection will be needed, and how long the service line will be. That decides the costs and also at what power to apply for connection.

What the check cannot do is confirm spare grid capacity. Only the grid operator finds that out on the basis of a connection application and allocates it in the order of applications. That is why the check also produces a recommendation on how and at what power to apply – and we submit the application as early as possible. We describe the procedure in grid connection.

How the check works

  1. Send us the cadastral area, plot numbers and your idea of the power and capacity.
  2. Within 3 working days you receive a report: zoning plan, protection zones and utilities, soil and nature protection restrictions, ownership and access, the nearest lines and an estimate of the connection level.
  3. The conclusion says whether it makes sense to continue, at what power to apply for connection and what will be hardest in the permitting.

You know the price of the check in advance; when you commission the design, we deduct it from the design price.

What the check saves

  • a design on a plot where the building cannot be permitted,
  • a connection application at a power the site cannot support,
  • a surprise in the form of a gas pipeline or line relocation in the middle of the design,
  • months of negotiations with the owners of the plots under the cable route that could have started earlier.

Frequently asked questions

Is the check enough to submit a connection application?

Not quite – the application needs a site plan and a single-line diagram. Both, however, follow directly from the check and we prepare them in the very next step.

What if the zoning plan does not allow the building?

Either another plot is found, or a motion to change the zoning plan is submitted. The second route takes years and has no certain outcome; we recommend it only for projects that have no alternative.

Do you check a plot we are only about to buy?

Yes, and that is the best time. The result of the check is a basis for the purchase decision and for the price negotiation.

Planning a similar project?

Send us the site and your intent. We reply within 48 hours.

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