BayWa re builds 14.5 MW of Dutch floating PV in six weeks

Germany’s BayWa re renewable energy GmbH and its Dutch partner, solar equipment supplier GroenLeven BV, have completed their work on the 14.5-MWp Sekdoorn floating solar project near the city of Zwolle, the Netherlands.

The German renewable energy company said it took them only six weeks from start to finish to build the floating facility and furnish it with close to 40,000 photovoltaic (PV) panels. The mounting system was developed in partnership with Zimmermann PV-Stahlbau GmbH.

The Sekdoorn park will be capable of supplying power to nearly 4,000 households.

The latest floating solar project is the third for the German-Dutch duo after previously working together on the 2-MWp Weperpolder and the 8.4-MWp Tynaarlo, also in the Netherlands.

BayWa re said it is planning to build further 100 MWp of such installations in the country.

Citing studies by Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy and the World Bank Group, BayWa re said that Germany and Europe as a whole have an untapped potential for floating PV capacity installed on man-made water surfaces.

Germany could place 15 GW of floating solar parks on its decommissioned coal mining lakes, whereas the World Bank puts Europe’s capacity potential at 20 GW if only 1% of the surface of man-made freshwater reservoirs is used.

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