In Berching-Oening, a Bavarian village located just under 30 km north of Ingolstadt, STEAG Solar Energy Solutions GmbH (SENS), Würzburg/Germany, has built a ground-mounted solar farm with a capacity of 15 MWp for the local Altmühl-Jura Energiegenossenschaft eG (AJE) energy cooperative (Figure 5). The new plant complements an existing wind farm and provides a significant increase in the
amount of renewables-based energy supplying people in the region.
For the AJE as the initiator of the project, it is clear that renewable energy production has to be further expanded. Several photovoltaic (PV) plants in the vicinity of the village are already in planning. The declared goal of AJE is to actively shape the energy transitionin the region.
The first project on the way to achieving this goal was completed by SENS after the cooperative itself had performed the project planning of the solar park. “We had a tight schedule for this project,” Thomas Schmidtner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AJE, reports. “But in SENS we have found an experienced Bavarian partner who has supported us in the best possible way as the EPC contractor for our ambitious undertaking.”
Specifically, SENS as an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) service provider built the new solar farm in the southern Upper Palatinate with an installed capacity of around 15 MWp in the last few months. Over 25,000 solar modules were installed on an area of 12.5 ha. The climate-neutral electricity generated is then fed into the distribution grid via the Oening substation.
With a power generation of around 16,000 MWh/a, 4,000 households in the region can in future be supplied with renewable energy. This corresponds to a permanent saving of around 8,000 t/a of CO2 emissions.
“We were very impressed by the activities of AJE and the palpable will and motivation of the entire region to work together to drive the energy transition forward and make it a success,” says Fabian Herr, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of SENS.
Herr was on site together with SENS project manager Harry Rauch at the groundbreaking ceremony in Oening and could literally feel the energy of the stakeholders involved. “With our Good Energy, we can optimally support the municipality in its goal of driving forward the expansion of renewables as quickly as possible. Despite all the current hurdles in the existing supply chains, we completed the solar farm in the shortest possible time.”
In addition to the existing wind farm in Oening, solar energy will now also become an important pillar of the regional energy mix in the community. Thanks to the further solar projects already planned by the energy cooperative, this importance will increase even more in the future. SENS will gladly continue to support AJE as an experienced and reliable partner in the regional energy transition. (STEAG/Si.)
