Less than 6 months after it earned the approval of EnBW's board, Germany's largest solar park with 187 MW capacity that will be also a subsidy-free project has entered construction in the region of Brandenburg. This is the first renewable energy project sans state funding for German energy group EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, which said the project is likely to be commissioned before the end of 2020.
The 187 MW Weesow-Willmersdorf Solar Park brings together over 40 companies to work on its construction and leads to the creation of up to 150 jobs. It will use around 465,000 solar modules on an area covering 164 hectares, distributed across 4 solar fields. The fields will be divided by the local road network that will be accessible to the public.
The solar park is expected to have a life of 40 years and on completion will generate 180 million kWh annually, that's enough to supply around 50,000 households.
"This solar park is our first renewable project without state funding; it also marks a milestone for photovoltaics in Germany and demonstrates that this technology has achieved market maturity," said Dirk Güsewell, head of generation portfolio development at EnBW. This is possible because of synergy effects due to the size of the park and the fact that costs in the photovoltaic sector have fallen by more than 80% in the last 10 years, EnBW explained.