With 1.3 GW new PV installations the Netherlands was one of the most important solar markets in Europe in 2018. For this year Jaap Barsma, President of Holland Solar, is expecting 2.5 GW new PV capacity, almost a doubling. Driving factors are further cost reductions, a broad public and political acceptance for solar and state funding programs like SDE+. “I expect that by 2025 we will see a subsidy-free solar market in our country”, Barsma said last week at SolarPower Summit in Brussels.
Four-month construction starts on March 21
Next week Pfalzsolar will start construction of a 34 MW PV park in Almere in the Dutch province of Flevoland. Last year, the German project planner and EPC Pfalzsolar prevailed against numerous international competitors in a call for tenders issued by the HVC Group, one of the largest non-commercial waste management companies in the Netherlands, and won the contract to implement the large-scale project. The four-month construction period begins on March 21st.
"This project is, in many ways, a special one for us," says Lars Josten, Managing Director at Pfalzsolar. "It is not only our largest project to date, but also another milestone in our cooperation with HVC - a partner whose commitment to renewable energies is unparalleled for us.” In the last few months Pfalzsolar has already built three solar parks with a total capacity of 9 MW on disused landfills on behalf of the HVC Group. In recent years, HVC has invested heavily in renewable energies. In addition to its own photovoltaic plants, the company operates wind farms and geothermal power plants.
High ramming depth and permanent drainage required
The Almere solar park is being built in an industrial zone of 25 hectare. Pfalzsolar chose an east-west mounting system to make optimum use of the area potential. Due to the soil conditions a high ramming depth is required. In addition, the German EPC had to take the permanent drainage of the soil into account in the plant design, as the area is 4 meters below sea level.
Advanced level of expertise in project planning
"The technical requirements for a project of this size are not unusual, but require a high level of expertise in project planning and the construction of ground-mounted solar parks," explains Max Huber, Head of Project Development at Pfalzsolar. Maarten Meijer, who accompanies the project on behalf of the project company Zuyderzon Almere, emphasizes: "Pfalzsolar's offer to include local suppliers and their many years of expertise were important decision criterions for us, in addition to economic factors. We greatly appreciate the cooperation with the Pfalzsolar team and look forward to the construction period that lies ahead of us.”
Feed-in-tariff in accordance with the SDE+ program
From its commissioning, the Almere solar park will produce around 30 million kilowatt hours of environmentally friendly solar electricity per year, giving power for about 10,000 households and saving the climate 18,000 tons of CO2 every year compared with non-renewable forms of generation. For every kilowatt hour fed into the grid, the operator Zuyderzon Almere, a project company of the HVC Group & Sunwatt, receives a feed-in-tariff determined in accordance with the Dutch SDE+ subsidy program. (HCN)
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More useful information:
https://www.pveurope.eu/News/Markets-Money/European-solar-optimism
https://www.pveurope.eu/News/Installation/Solar-power-for-the-Flemish-regional-parliament
https://www.pveurope.eu/News/Installation/Growatt-opens-new-office-in-Rotterdam
https://www.pveurope.eu/solar-modules/more-large-scale-solar-projects-netherlands
