In the Forst bioenergy park a new open-space PV system has now been connected to the grid. In future this will generate solar power for the requirements of the plant producing biogas on the park. The Steag Solar Energy Solutions team planned and implemented the turnkey 750 kilowatt solar energy installation on behalf of Biogas Forst GmbH & Co. KG. As a facility implemented for EnviTec Biogas Betriebs GmbH & Co. KG, the company which owns Biogas Forst GmbH & Co. KG, the project is the first open-space PV system on a bioenergy park to be designed for the park's own consumption. At the heart of the Forst bioenergy park is a gas processing plant with a capacity of more than 700 standard cubic metres, which since September 2014 has been feeding around 65,000 megawatt hours of green energy into the local natural gas network. In this way 4,000 households are supplied with gas from renewable sources. And from now on the bioenergy park will be even more sustainable: The new PV system installed by SENS covers part of the energy required for the gas processing and biogas plant, so that considerable sections of the bioenergy park can do without conventionally generated electricity. The approximately 2,500 solar panels installed generate around 740 megawatt hours per year. Due to the way the plant is dimensioned, up to 98 per cent of the energy generated is used directly for the park’s own consumption during the day, while the surplus energy is fed into the public grid.
Commitment under challenging circumstances
It is worth highlighting that the completion of the final work prior to commissioning the PV system took place under difficult conditions due to the coronavirus pandemic: “In spite of the coronavirus crisis, the project targets were without exception achieved and even exceeded in some cases. Naturally, while complying with the protective regulations currently in force,” reports Fabian Herr, Head of Projects at SENS, adding: “My thanks go to all those involved for their professional commitment even under these special circumstances.”
In the execution of the project SENS was supported by G+H Solar GmbH. This company, headquartered in Sankt Augustin (North Rhine-Westphalia), is a long-standing and experienced partner specialising in the installation of PV parks. Among other projects the two companies have recently successfully completed solar the parks in Oranienbaum and Gadebusch. (mfo)
