BayWa Building 27.4 MW Floating Solar Plant In Netherlands

• BayWa is constructing 27.4 MW floating solar PV facility near Zwolle in the Netherlands on a sandpit lake
• It is using Zim Float floating system that it designed with partner Zimmerman PV-Stahlbau GmbH
• This is the company's fourth floating solar project in the Netherlands and it claims on completion it will be the world's largest floating solar PV plant outside of China

Germany's BayWa r.e. renewable energy GmbH is steaming ahead with what it terms as the world's largest floating solar PV plant outside of China, planned to have 27.4 MW capacity in the Netherlands. It has already completed 8 MW of installations within two weeks.

The 27.4 MW Bomhofsplas Floating Solar Farm is coming up near Zwolle with some 73,000 solar PV modules on a sandpit lake. The company will deploy 13 floating transformers and 192 inverter boats to complete the project in partnership with Zimmerman PV-Stahlbau GmbH with whom it has designed its Zim Float floating system.

It is the German company's fourth floating solar project in the Netherlands after completing 14.5 MW Sekdoorn, 8.4 MW Tynaarlo and 2.1 MW Weperpolder (see 14.5 MW Floating Solar Plant Online In Netherlands).   

BayWa says the 27.4 MW facility is being constructed in a carbon free manner as it utilizes power from the first part of the solar farm and an onsite 600 kW battery.

"In only two weeks we have built 8 MW of the project, peaking at constructing 1 MW a day. That's quite a significant increase in speed of delivery, enabling more green energy to be produced quicker," said Dr Benedikt Ortmann, BayWa r.e.'s Global Director of Solar Projects.

While it accelerates its floating solar capacity in the Netherlands, BayWa is exploring its German home turf. In a study commissioned by the company, Fraunhofer ISE claimed Germany has 56 GW technical potential for floating PV on lignite opencast mines and 2.74 GW of economic potential (see Study Explores Floating PV Potential In Germany). 

Malaysia

BayWa also announced commissioning its second solar project in Malaysia. Located in Pahang, the company realized this project along with its local partner HD Earth Sdn. Bhd. It won this project in a 2017 solar tender organized by the Malaysian Energy Commission and says this is the first solar farm to reach commercial operations of all the winning bidders.

BayWa's first solar project in Malaysia had 5.2 MW capacity and it came online in March 2018 in Arau.