Solarcentury expands European presence with new solar farm in Germany
Solarcentury has developed, constructed and sold a 4.7 MWp solar farm in Sachsen-Anhalt state, eastern Germany that will provide enough energy to power 1,150 local homes. The “Calvörde” solar farm was constructed in just five weeks on the brownfield site, demonstrating solar’s speed of deployment. The Solarcentury team already has experience of delivering solar projects in Germany, with several roof installs in the last decade. Calvörde is the first solar farm Solarcentury has built in Germany and is the biggest project the company has completed in this market.
For the Calvörde solar farm, Solarcentury developed the rights for the site together with well-established partner Sybac Solar GmbH. Solarcentury secured the debt financing and an investor, designed the system and managed the build. The solar farm was made financially feasible by the new auction tariff for ground mount installations in Germany introduced in April 2015. The Calvörde project is the first to complete of the 25 projects awarded which together have a combined capacity of 150 MWp.Nikolaus Krane, Director for Solarcentury in Germany commented, “Calvörde solar farm is the first in a pipeline of new projects we are looking at in Germany. The levelised cost of solar electricity in Germany is below the wholesale market price for industrial / commercial off-takers, which makes ground mounted solar of this size financially viable. Our long history of building successful solar projects makes Solarcentury an attractive solar partner, with a vast bank of EPC knowledge and experience. Our team is ready to develop commercial scale ground and roof projects in Germany and we’re also looking at markets in Central Europe.”
Solarcentury’s German team brings cumulatively 65 years of solar industry experience, and they are supported by colleagues at the company headquarters in London which has been established almost 20 years, making it one of the oldest and most experienced solar companies in the world. Solarcentury is currently present in countries across Europe, Africa, north and south America.Frans van den Heuvel, CEO at Solarcentury commented, “The German market is highly competitive but the Calvörde solar farm demonstrates that with the right partnerships in place, it is possible to deliver successful solar projects. This latest project is part of Solarcentury’s international growth strategy, bringing our engineering expertise and experience to deliver solar projects in Africa and LatAm, and in European markets.
We believe the outlook for solar in Germany is getting brighter, despite mixed fortunes of the recent past. Solar in Germany is welcome news for businesses who can adopt solar as a way to fix their long term energy costs, reduce reliance on grid energy and cut their carbon emissions.”The solar farm is now connected to the grid and generating energy, which is being fed into the local grid.
