Insufficient capacity delays grid connection for 8.5-MWp solar park in Germany

German green energy company Naturstrom AG has completed the 8.5-MW expansion of the Henschleben solar park in Thuringia but now has to wait for months in order to connect the plant to the grid which cannot currently integrate the new capacity.

The company was able to complete the expansion of the 7.5-MWp Henschleben solar plant only a year after the start of construction of the first part of the project, it said on Wednesday. However, the additional capacity will not be connected to the grid until the local grid operator Thueringer Energienetze expands the Walschleben substation which is planned for the first quarter of 2023.

The connection of new solar parks to the public power grid is an increasingly challenging issue as the grid is often not developed enough to accommodate the renewable energy capacity, said Thomas Banning, Managing Director of Naturstrom's subsidiary NaturEnergy, which has invested in the solar park.

The transmission grid must be expanded more actively, otherwise, it will not be possible to meet the federal government's goals for green energy expansion, Banning added.

Henschleben 2, built on a former landfill site near the first section of the solar park, is expected to generate 8.5 million kWh of clean electricity per year, raising the total annual output of the entire complex to 16 million kWh. The first section of the solar farm is tied to a battery to ease the feed-in peaks that cannot be absorbed by the existing grid.

Next year, Naturstrom plans to further expand the Henschleben solar plant.

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