Sweden's Vattenfall has brought alive its 1st floating solar farm, in the Netherlands. The 1.2 MW project was scheduled to become operational by May 2020 as per previous announcement by Vattenfall (see Vattenfall Announces Its First Floating Solar Farm). Netterden financed the project and took possession of the project on September 25, 2020.
The 1.2 MW project will power sand and gravel extraction company Netterden's onsite operations in Gendringen on the latter's gravel quarry. It will source clean energy for half of its annual energy consumption for electric sand drudge and associated sorting and processing equipment with onsite sustainable power generation.
"Netterden's vision on socially responsible business was the main reason for launching this project. Green power is a natural part of this," said Business Development Manager with Vattenfall, Ivo Iprenburg. "This ambition is an excellent fit with Vattenfall's mission to make fossil-free living possible within one generation. We are pleased to have had the opportunity to make this project feasible for them."
Floating solar as a concept finds practical application in the Netherlands, according to the Swedish power company, since the country doesn't have enough land to accommodate large scale solar power plants. And there are quite a few such projects that are either already online or coming up soon. In July 2020, Dutch water supplier Evides Waterbedrijf grid connected a 1.628 floating solar project which it claims is Europe's 'largest' sun-tracking floating solar park. Set up by a company called Floating Solar, it will sell solar power generated to Evides under a power purchase agreement (PPA) (see 1.6 MW Floating Solar Project In Netherlands).
The largest floating solar park to date in Europe is the 24.7 MW project in the Netherlands which Germany's BayWa r.e. and its Dutch subsidiary GroenLeven sold to new owners a local consortium in July 2020 (see New Owners For 'Largest' Dutch Floating PV Project).
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