Erdgas Südwest planning 6 MW floating solar plant in Germany; Falck Renewables constructing 9.7 MW agrivoltaic project in Italy; AE Solar's 3 new products at Intersolar; Neoen wins 80 MW solar in Ireland; Shell uses Inaccess platform for Dutch plant.
6 MW floating solar plant in Germany: German distributer of natural gas and electricity Natural Gas Southwest or Erdgas Südwest GmbH along with public works department in Baden-Baden Stadtwerke Baden-Baden is planning to develop a 6 MW floating solar power plant. The proposal has been presented to the local municipal council which will now initiate the approval process. They plan to establish the facility on Kuehlsee quarry pond near Iffezheim. Power generated is proposed to be supplied to the crushed rock or gravel plant of EKS Eugen Kühl und Söhne GmbH & Co KG along with concrete maker Kronmius AG. They plan to start construction on site in summer 2023 post the approval. Project Manager at Erdgas Südwest Boris Heller said, "Quarry ponds are ideally suited to create solar power plants. They are not in competition for space and deliver green electricity exactly when it is needed by the gravel and concrete block works for the operation of machines, excavators and conveyor belts."
9.7 MW agrivoltaic project in Italy: Italian renewable energy company Falck Renewables has started construction on 9.7 MW agrivoltaic plant in Landolina region of Sicily in Italy. The project will combined agricultural and livestock production with renewable energy on land that has been left uncultivated for the last 20 years. It will be spread over 22-hectare site with 17 hectares used for PV and crops and 5 hectares for only planting. The Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Catania has picked the native crops to be grown on site and include fruit trees, medicinal herbs and polyphytic grass for grazing sheep, keeping bees and producing honey and hive products. Falck Renewables has raised proceeds from a crowdfunding program for this project with local residents of Sicily participating in it.
AE Solar's Intersolar offerings: German solar module maker AE Solar presented its 3 new products at Intersolar Europe 2022. One of the products was Aurora with up to 670W power output based on silicon heterojunction (HJT) technology and up to 21.6% efficiency. These come in 3 bills of materials namely monofacial, bifacial with glass-transparent backsheet and bifacial double-glass. The other was Comet series with up to 22.2% efficiency and 485W output based on HJT technology. The 3rd product was hybrid PVT module called Neptune producing both heat and electricity. According to AE Solar, "Up to 75% of the solar energy received by PV modules is waste in the form of heat losses. Utilizing hybrid PVT modules, the Neptune series can produce up to 10% more electrical yield compared to standard PV and collects the heat losses for heating purposes." AE Solar says Neptune is its solution to the rising gas prices and can be deployed for hospitals, hotels, swimming pools, households and any other industry which requires heating and/or hot water.
Recently, TaiyangNews held a 2-day Intersolar Munich Review Conference where various leading solar manufacturers presented utility and rooftop solar focused products they unveiled at Intersolar Europe 2022 (see May 24-25 TaiyangNews Intersolar Munich Review Conference).
Neoen's 80 MW win in Irish auction: French independent power producer (IPP) Neoen has won around 80 MW solar capacity in Ireland's Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) 2 whose provisional results were declared recently (see Ireland Selects 1.9+ GW Under RESS 2 Auction). The company will this capacity as 61 MW Ballinknockane Solar Project in County Limerick and 19 MW Threecastles Solar in County Wicklow. Both the projects are scheduled for completion by 2025-end. On completion, these will generate close to 76 GWh annually. Neoen recently energized the country's 1st grid scale solar project with 8 MW capacity in Wicklow which also happened to be its 1st Irish solar farm that it won in RESS 1 (see RESS 2 Auction Round Launched In Ireland).
Shell using Inaccess for Dutch hybrid RE park: For its 50 MW solar PV and 50 MW wind power plant in a hybrid mode in the Netherlands, Shell says it has deployed Unity platform of control and monitoring solutions provider Inaccess. The Unity platform optimized operation of a co-located wind and solar power plant by providing accurate monitoring and control. Shell says it acts as the 'single version of truth among the EPC, O&M, Asset Management, and Market Management ecosystem, thus eliminating inefficiencies'.
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