The construction of the largest solar park to date, which GOLDBECK SOLAR is building for WEMAG, is making progress. The head of the State Chancellery of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, State Secretary Dr. Heiko Geue, and the Minister for Energy, Infrastructure and Digitalization of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Christian Pegel, were able to see this for themselves during a site inspection with WEMAG Executive Board member Thomas Murche.
The Zietlitz Solar Park is being built on the site of a former gravel pit in the Linstow area (district of Rostock). A photovoltaic plant on a total area of about 75 hectares with about 190,000 modules. “This corresponds approximately to the size of 123 soccer fields”, said WEMAG board member Thomas Murche. “They will generate an output of around 75 megawatt peak. The amount of energy generated annually is around 70,000 megawatt hours”. This is enough to supply around 21,000 households with electricity each year.
“It is our largest photovoltaic project to date, which is characterized above all by high-quality components as well as a high-performance IT infrastructure and a sophisticated security concept,” Thomas Murche continued. With the new Zietlitz solar park, the municipal energy company wants to further expand its portfolio of own eco-power plants.
The work is expected to be completed by the end of 2020 and the plant will be connected to the grid. It is expected to save around 37,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. The WEMAG project is being implemented in cooperation with experienced partners.
“We are delighted to build this large plant for WEMAG and thus contribute a noticeable building block for the energy turnaround,” emphasized GOLDBECK-SOLAR CEO Joachim Goldbeck. “After a number of PV projects on landfills and gravel pits, we can now demonstrate our expertise in challenging ground and construction conditions with this largest conversion area plant to date”.
“With the project development of such a large solar power plant, several years pass from the project idea to the realization”, said Christian Garbe, authorized signatory of MES – Moderne Energie Systeme GmbH from Parchim. “It is important to work together with the right partners in this process. With WEMAG we have one of these strong partners and can realize another project together”.
“The sun is – besides wind in particular – an important source of regenerative energy in our sunny federal state,” said Energy Minister Christian Pegel during the tour. “In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania there are currently around 12,000 photovoltaic systems with a total output of 1,700 gigawatt hours installed. This is a good interim result for this important component of the energy turnaround. But there is still a lot of room for improvement. Therefore I am very pleased about the commitment of WEMAG and this new solar park. This is one of the largest solar parks in Germany supported by the Renewable Energy Sources Act. Especially fallow land such as former gravel pits offer our country a huge potential for large-scale solar plants. An important contribution to the energy turnaround”.
Dr. Heiko Geue, head of the state chancellery, was also impressed by the huge solar park: “Gravel excavators used to roll here. Now almost 200,000 photovoltaic modules are being built to capture the sunlight and convert it into clean energy. The state government in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern supports the expansion of solar energy. I welcome the fact that the cover of the solar subsidy of 52 gigawatts so far has been cancelled. And I expect the federal government to promote the further expansion of solar energy in various areas in the ongoing drafting of the new Renewable Energy Sources Act. The state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will support the federal government in this with all its might”.
