Photovoltaics for Hungary – land of sunshine
Iqony Sens and LSG GROUP complete 65 MWp in Hungary
Thanks to the promotion of new solar parks by the Hungarian government, Iqony Sens has been driving forward the growth of renewable energy in Eastern Europe in recent months. Since construction works started in Hungary in August 2020, a total of 130 solar parks have been completed in a joint project with our Austrian partner the LSG GROUP. Plants near the capital Budapest and in the north and east of the country with a total capacity of 65 MWp are now generating solar energy.
The sun rises in the east – and that is where it seems to like to show itself. With up to 2,500 hours of sunshine per year, Hungary is one of the leading lands of sunshine in Europe. This delights not only its citizens and tourists, but also the solar investors at Green Source GmbH, who have engaged Iqony Sens and the LSG Group to implement their projects. 130 solar parks at 5 locations were finished on time at the start of summer and are generating electricity from Hungarian sunshine.
Favourable climate and financial conditions in Hungary
In less than only 10 months, the two partners completed the 130 planned solar parks as the general contractor. In accordance with the Hungarian KÁT licence regime, the maximum installed capacity of each plant is 0.5 MWp. 130 substations were also constructed at the same time to feed the electricity directly into the local grid. After grid connection in April, Hungary immediately started to benefit from an additional annual output of 78,000 MWh of green electricity.
The construction of the solar parks, some of which are in the north and east of the country, will save about 43,800 tonnes of CO2emissions annually in the future.
Successful project development under corona conditions
Hungary’s regulations meant that implementation of the PV parks had to be done to a strict timetable. Hungary grants what are known as KÁT licences, which guarantee companies a fixed feed-in tariff for up to 25 years. In order to benefit from the 130 KÁT licences, the solar parks had to be complete and the green electricity flowing into the Hungarian grid before summer 2021.
The current pandemic situation and the associated restrictions presented further difficulties in meeting the deadline. Not only the procurement and logistics of the required materials but also the installation teams’ travel to Hungary presented a challenge. In spite of these special demands, the teams from the two partner companies kept to the timetable and coordinated the virtually parallel construction of 130 solar parks on 5 different sites across the whole of Hungary.
“Despite massive restrictions due to the pandemic situation, all the projects were completed and connected to the grid well before the specified deadline. I am proud about the performance of the whole team and that the logistics and coordination of all those involved on the parallel construction sites ran so efficiently,” summed up Fabian Herr, Head of Projects at Iqony Sens.
Solar market in Eastern Europe: More projects on the drawing board
The successful cooperation of the two partners Iqony Sens and LSG is set to continue in future under the same flag. As already announced, the formation of a joint venture creates the official basis for continuing their long-established cooperation.
The partners have their sights set mainly on the development and construction of solar parks as well as service operations in Eastern Europe. The focus in the early stages is on Hungary, Romania and Greece.
Images: Igor Klobucar (1, 2), LSG Daniel Tudor (3)