Europe's largest rooftop PV plant completed
WIRSOL has completed Europe's largest crystalline rooftop solar plant. The solar power plant with a peak capacity of 8.1 megawatts (MW) has been installed on the distribution centre of the pfenning logistics GmbH in Heddesheim (southern Germany) and is yet another building block for the sustainably built logistics center "multicube rhein-neckar".
The roofs of the two hall complexes have a total area of eleven hectares.
"In this size, we usually build solar parks," explains Dennis Seiberth, WIRSOL president of the business unit international large-scale projects.
"However, we were ambitious and eager to realize the plant within four weeks." At the end of July, the solar power plant went on the grid according to plan.
"We are happy that we can now partially generate our electricity by ourselves," says Karl-Martin Pfenning, owner and managing partner of the pfenning group. "With the photovoltaic installation, we can annually save up to 5,171 tons of carbon," Pfenning continues. Over 33,000 modules on the roof, which are angled in east-west orientation, produce as much clean power that it could potentially cover the demand of about 1,846 families.
Thus, the solar power plant is the largest own consumption plant in Europe so far.
The recently constructed building "multicube rhein-neckar", which has been taken over by Union Investment in 2012, is characterized by its flexible building structure. Prior to its completion, it has been pre-certified by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) with the highest award in gold for being ecologically efficient.