By way of comparison, the whole of France built PV plants supplying 2.7 gigawatts in the same twelve-month period. An example is the largest solar power plant in Bulgaria which Sunotec is building on the fringes of the Verila Mountains, approximately one hour’s drive south of the capital Sofia. This PV project alone will increase Bulgaria's photovoltaic output by 12 per cent. The Verila plant will supply 124 megawatts. The planned completion date is sometime in spring 2023.
Building solar parks even in difficult terrain
“With the total capacity installed by the industry last year, the world has taken another big step towards green energy security,” says Sunotec CEO Bernhard Suchland. “Nevertheless, this can only be a beginning. The Federal Network Agency recently asserted that, for Germany alone, we need to bring an additional 1.5 gigawatts of solar power online every month if we want to meet the national government’s target of 215 gigawatts by 2030. We can only achieve this if we massively increase roll-out in all types of installations.”
Sunotec
See also: 50-megawatt solar farm in Greece with bifacial modules
Such enormous growth in a relatively short time is only achievable if land for solar plants is used as efficiently as possible, explains Founder and CEO Kaloyan Velichkov. In the case of solar parks, this ranges from former agricultural fields, where native wild plants are sown between and under the modules for more biodiversity, to the use of land that presents natural obstacles to farming: “At the Verila solar park in Bulgaria, for example, we have to cope with hilly terrain that in some places has a slope of as much as 18 degrees.”
Many more solar parks currently under construction
Sunotec’s ability to achieve even greater growth in terms of installed gigawatts in 2023 depends on factors such as supply chains and approval procedures, says CEO Bernhard Suchland: “But we are very positive about our prospects and, moreover, highly motivated after last year’s results.” The first solar parks that will be completed in 2023 include Doellen, Germany (91 megawatts); Bubney, United Kingdom (40.4 megawatts); Groot Roodehaan, The Netherlands (33.3 megawatts). Numerous others are currently under construction. (mfo)
