Masdar PV commissions largest solar park in Thuringia, Germany, in record time

ICHTERHAUSEN, GERMANY: Masdar PV, an innovative manufacturer of thin-film photovoltaic products, has completed the largest solar power plant in Gotha, State of Thuringia within less than two months. The solar park has, therefore, completed all the conditions for obtaining the EEG feed-in tariffs of 2011.

On a former military property, more than 50,000 solar panels will provide a nominal output of 11.7 MWp for the local power grid. With an annual energy production of 10.5 million kilowatt hours, the installation will produce enough power to supply around 2,500 four-person households. In addition, this project will enable Masdar PV to save approximately 9,300 tons of CO2 emissions annually, the equivalent of the emissions of more than 4,000 medium-sized cars.

In the new solar park, a mixture of Masdar PV’s state of the art dual-junction micromorph and established amorphous modules will operate. The application of 17,320 micromorph full size modules was especially responsible for the fast and efficient installation of the park. The Gotha project also confirms Masdar PV’s commitment to provide sustainable energy in the State of Thuringia.

Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar, said: “This project is the largest PV installation of solar modules in Thuringia and the first application of our new micromorph silicon technology using full size module at high efficiency. It supports the UAE leadership’s vision of making Masdar a preeminent source for knowledge and development of renewable energy. The effective project management and coordination with the State of Thuringia and system integrator were the major reasons for the fast construction of the park. This enables us to further contribute to the region’s power supply with renewable energies.”

The solar power plant is designed and constructed by UAE based system integrator Enviromena Power Systems, who previously collaborated with Masdar on a variety of photovoltaic projects including a 10 MW solar power farm installed in 2009 at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Enviromena CEO, Sami Khoreibi, said: “We are very pleased to be associated with Masdar PV on this important utility scale project. Of particular interest to us were the logistics associated with the first installation of Masdar PV’s full size modules. More than half of the 11.7 MW plant are at 5.7 m2 size each substantially larger than any other solar module. We found the full size modules quite efficient to handle and in fact were able to install the entire field in less than six weeks.”

Aside from Masdar PV’s solar modules, the plant incorporates technology from solar inverter manufacturer SMA, and solar racking manufacturers Krinner and PUK. Before end of 2011 Enviromena performed extensive commissioning tests, which verified the proper function of the modules.