Germany’s largest solar park in Werneuchen (Brandenburg) fed the first kilowatt hour of electricity into the grid.

EnBW is gradually bringing into operation a solar park near Berlin with an output of 187 megawatts / 465,000 solar modules being installed in total.

“This is an important milestone for our solar park – and for renewable energies overall. Large photovoltaic projects like this one ensure that photovoltaics are making a noticeable and cost-effective contribution to the Energiewende.”

Thorsten Jörß, head of project development for photovoltaics at EnBW.

Although the first modules and inverters have already been put into service at one end of the park, installation work is still underway at the other end. Almost all of the nearly 100,000 substructure posts have now been mounted on the ground and about 70 percent of the modules have been installed.

Both transformer stations, which supply the electricity produced by the solar park to a 110 kilovolt high-voltage line, are ready for service.

“We have achieved a lot and continuously found solutions for the challenges we have faced during the coronavirus pandemic, although our time buffer has now almost been exhausted. We are working at full steam to ensure that the entire solar park is connected to the grid by the end of the year. Any further unplanned delays could mean, however, that we are only able to place the final solar modules into operation after New Year.”

Stefan Lederer, construction site manager.

EnBW is investing approximately €100 million in the initiative, which is being implemented without State funding and thus does not impose additional pressures on customers through the allocation of EEG costs.

Approximately 465,000 solar modules would generate enough environmentally friendly electricity for approximately 50,000 households, saving around 129,000 tons of CO2 per year.