Investors in photovoltaic systems are increasingly relying on high-quality products “Made in Germany” and “Made in USA” not only for installation on home or industrial roofs but also for installation on the ground. SolarWorld AG, based in Bonn, Germany, is currently expanding its large-scale system business, and with success. In the second quarter of this year, it connected five solar farms in commercial and industrial areas in the German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Lower Saxony, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with a total power of 33 megawatts to the grid, including one 18.8-megawatt system in Mahlwinkel, Saxony-Anhalt, and one 10.2-megawatt system in Barth, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
The farms will supply over 30 million kilowatt-hours of solar power a year, which is equivalent to the average annual consumption of around 7,500 households. Solarparc AG, which was integrated into the SolarWorld Group early this year as a 100-percent subsidiary, made it possible to expand this business division so quickly. The company has specialized in this type of large-scale project for years and completed construction and technical setup and sold the solar parks to investors in just a short time. Solarparc will handle operational management for some of the projects.
“Getting a volume of over 30 megawatts ready for operation in such a short time and successfully selling installations this large is something to be proud of,” said Dr.-Ing. E. h. Frank Asbeck, Chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG. “You need the years of experience of a Solarparc as well as the support of a strong manufacturer like SolarWorld to be able to pull off such an achievement.” According to Asbeck, the full integration of the company into SolarWorld is now paying off.
SolarWorld supplied 79,800 modules with a total power of 18.8 megawatts for the solar farm near Magdeburg, which was built in a record seven weeks on green space at the former Mahlwinkel airfield. Approximately 555 metric tons of aluminum were used to build the substructure for the modules, and 26 central inverters in 13 concrete stations weighing 40 metric tons each were set up on the former landing strip. Roughly 750 kilometers of cable were installed.
SolarWorld supplied 41,808 modules for a 10.2-megawatt solar farm in Barth on Mecklenburg’s Baltic Sea coast. The SolarWorld modules are perfectly suited for installation in the immediate vicinity of the Barther Bodden lagoon. They passed the salt spray test in compliance with DIN EN 61701 and meet the requirements for weathering several decades in a maritime climate intact.