Recently the partners – municipal utility Stadtwerke Bitterfeld-Wolfen, the ISM Group and Hanwha Q CELLS - set up the first tenant energy plants on residential properties belonging to the Wolfen Housing Association in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. ISM Energy (an affiliate of ISM Group) planned and built the systems, Stadtwerke Bitterfeld-Wolfen owns and operates them, and Hanwha Q CELLS delivered its high-power solar modules. The tenants are supplied with both the solar electricity and residual electricity from the grid operated by Stadtwerke Bitterfeld-Wolfen. The solar power systems have a total capacity of 110 kW and are equipped with 394 Q CELLS Q.PLUS-G4 solar modules, each with 280 W and Q.ANTUM technology. The systems will produce around 107,000 kWh of clean solar power per annum and supply 48 households with cheap solar energy.
Tenant energy: A Budding Solar Business Model in Germany
Tenant energy combines locally produced direct solar power and grid power into an electricity package for private and business end users in Germany. Unlike for supply solely via the grid, no energy tax and other fees associated with use of the municipal power grid have to be paid for the directly produced and consumed solar energy. Additionally, the system operator receives a grant for the direct energy sold. As a result, the electricity is offered to the tenants at a considerably lower price than that for the basic supply, and it is therefore economically advantageous for home-owners and tenants, as well as the energy provider.
More projects starting in 2018
Stadtwerke Bitterfeld-Wolfen was apprised to identify the opportunity of tenant energy and had already started to develop its own tenant energy scheme even before the new Tenant Energy Act (Mieterstromgesetz) came into force in July 2017. Tenant energy helps strengthen local economic cycles, increases local value creation and yields positive effects for the region. This is why the three high-performing partners, Stadtwerke Bitterfeld-Wolfen, the ISM Group and Hanwha Q CELLS, came together in Bitterfeld-Wolfen in order to implement the joint tenant energy projects in the region. The high quality-related expectations of the three partners and the successful collaboration on the first three projects will be the basis for future collaboration. In 2018, the partners will collaborate to equip other housing associations in the region with solar energy systems. Tenant energy systems are also planned for new builds.
Lower energy costs and increased properties value
Sabine Barth, Board Member of the Wolfen Housing Association, said, "We are delighted to be able to offer our tenants low energy costs through collaboration with strong partners from the region. In addition to boosting our image, the solar energy systems have increased the value of our properties and made them particularly attractive to future tenants thanks to the lower energy costs." Christian Dubiel, Managing Director at Stadtwerke Bitterfeld-Wolfen, said, "For the municipal utility, this has opened up new, attractive business areas in the field of energy services - not to mention increasing customer loyalty through the contractual relationship with the tenants. We can also see significant potential in linking sectors in the fields of electricity, heating, and electrical mobility."
Huge market potential
Tobias Schmidt, CEO of ISM Group said, "For the ISM Group, tenant energy is a significant growth area. Together with our regional partners, ISM will provide thousands of tenants in our region with access to cheap and environmentally-friendly solar energy in the coming years."
Mario Schulte, Account Manager at Hanwha Q CELLS, added, "We are delighted that our solar modules are finally making environmentally-friendly and cheap solar energy available to tenants in our region and in Germany. The high performance and energy yield from Q CELLS solar modules thus play a crucial role in obtaining the maximum yield from the available roof space. We are looking forward to more tenant energy projects in the next year." (HCN)
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