Conergy and partner Renew HGmbH expand their collaboration with citizens' solar park

Hamburg / Ulmen, 22 May 2013 – Conergy and its long-time partner Renew HGmbH are supporting the local energy transition in the German Eifel with a solar power plant with a capacity of around 1 megawatt. The investor of the solar park is the local energy cooperative MEHR Energie eG. Its members, now numbering more than 100, have made it their aim to promote the supply of electricity from renewable energy sources in their region of Mosel-Eifel-Hunsrück, and they are now laying the foundations with this first major solar project in Ulmen. On an area of some 6 acres, equivalent to three soccer fields, the citizens' solar park (Bürgersolarpark) will be generating around 845,000 kilowatt hours of clean electricity every year. This is sufficient energy for supplying around 240 households and therefore nearly a quarter of Ulmen's residents.

As the plant operator, the energy cooperative intends to sell part of the generated electricity directly to the businesses on the "Eifel-Maar-Park" industrial estate for local consumption. Checks are currently being carried out to establish the technical options for connecting the consumers. The businesses in the park will make themselves independent from future electricity price rises and benefit from the environmentally friendly energy, because the solar plant will prevent the emission of around 551 tons of CO2 every year. This corresponds to the emissions of over 7,300 cars travelling along the 326 mile stretch from Conergy's headquarters in Hamburg to Renew in the Eifel.

With this citizens' solar park, the PV solution and service provider Conergy and Renew are continuing their successful collaboration. After the first joint major project in Kaisersesch in October 2012, they are now connecting the second solar power plant with a capacity of just under one megawatt in Ulmen to the grid. Here, around 3,800 Conergy modules "made in Germany" will be producing renewable solar power from the region for the region in future.

"An ever increasing number of communities are aiming to organise the supply of electricity at a local level with a decentralised setup based on a sustainable energy mix," said Stefan Balbierz, Managing Director of Conergy in Germany. "In Germany, solar power is increasingly competitive, and this creates many new opportunities and business models. Through the direct selling of locally generated energy in the local area, for instance to nearby businesses, everybody benefits – the citizens and communities, but also private investors as well as the local economy. That makes the involvement in such projects a truly sustainable and promising investment."

As was the case with their first joint project, the solar experts from Conergy and Renew worked closely together in a well-coordinated team. Renew performed the development work for the solar park until it was ready for construction. Then the Conergy engineers continued with the planning and engineering of the power plant. The team from the PV solution and service provider was also responsible for the supply of all components, the construction of close to four kilometres of Conergy SolarLinea mounting systems and the installation of the modules before handing the "project baton" back to Renew. Renew's specialists then completed all the electrical work, from wiring the modules to installing and connecting the 29 inverters, and finally connected the solar park to the local grid.

"We are very pleased that we were able to further expand our good collaboration with Conergy with this second major power plant after the excellent experiences from the pilot project," said Thomas Rink, Managing Director of Renew HGmbH. "Conergy's years of experience and extensive knowhow in the planning and configuration of solar parks and our skills in the area of electrical installation complement each other superbly. We intend to continue this successful partnership in the future – we already have further joint projects on the drawing board."