14.5 MW Floating Solar Plant Online In Netherlands

• A 14.5 MW floating solar power plant has been commissioned by BayWa r.e. and its Dutch partner GroenLeven in the Netherlands
• It uses some 40,000 solar panels with BayWa and Zimmerman PV-Stahlbau's mounting system
• BayWa says it plans to add more than 100 MW floating PV in Europe by next year
• An official report of the PBL in the Netherlands expects significant growth of solar PV in the country pegging it at 27 GW cumulatively by 2030

The Netherlands has just got another floating solar power plant up and running –  this one is located near the city of Zwolle with 14.5 MW capacity. It happens to be the third floating PV project that German company BayWa r.e. and local company GroenLeven have realized in the country.

The previous floating solar projects by the two partners in the Netherlands are: 2 MW Weperpolder plant and 8.4 MW Tynaarlo plant.

The 14.5 MW Sekdoorn Floating Solar Project was built in six weeks with some 40,000 panels installed. Power generated by the plant will be sufficient to power almost 4,000 households.

The German company says it is working on floating solar projects in Germany, France, Italy and Spain where it is using mounting system it has developed in partnership with Zimmermann PV-Stahlbau GmbH.

"In only a few months we built 25 MWp of floating PV projects in the Netherlands, which made us one of the biggest floating Solar developers in Europe. Those installations are an important extension to ground-mounted facilities and a smart contribution to improve the so called 'double function' applications for solar, such as AgriSolar, Carports, building integrated PV and rooftop PV," said Benedikt Ortmann, BayWa r.e.'s Global Head of Solar Projects. "We are planning to add more than 100 MWp of floating PV next year just in Europe."

BayWa's local partner GroenLeven is working on a 48 MW floating solar power plant in Zuidplas municipality on a sand extraction site (see 48 MW Floating Solar Park Planned In Netherlands).

Recently, Akuo Energy commissioned the 17 MW O'MEGA 1 floating solar plant in France, the largest such project in Europe at the time (see Europe Gets Its Largest Floating Solar Plant In France).

Netherlands's solar projections

A new report by the country's Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) titled Climate and Energy Outlook 2019 states that in 2018, new solar PV capacity in the Netherlands grew with more than 1.5 GW taking the cumulative installed to 4.4 GW. By 2020, it is expected to expand further to 9 GW, 15 GW in 2023 and 27 GW in 2030.

Some 30% of the expected capacity increase envisioned for 2030 is expected to come from residential rooftop solar, it adds.

Broadly, PBL expects at least 18 GW of PV capacity in 2030 in the worst case and up to 36 GW in its best case scenario. However it cautions the growth of large scale PV will depend on continuation of SDE+, Holland's auction based subsidy scheme till 2030,. While the Dutch government has already announced phasing out the net metering scheme for rooftop solar between 2023 and 2031, PBL believes taking away the net metering mechanism will not impact the amount of PV deployment in the long run.

The report is available on the website of PBL in Dutch language.

In January 2019, Dutch solar news portal Polder PV reported 2018 installations in the range of 1.3 GW to 1.5 GW adding up to over 4 GW capacity cumulatively (see Netherlands Installed Over 1 GW PV In 2018).