Biogas meets solar energy

New PV system in the Forst bioenergy park goes onstream

Forst, the capital of the Lausitz district, aims to become climate-neutral by 2030. The project is supported by STEAG Solar Energy Solutions GmbH (SENS). In the Forst bioenergy park a new open-space PV system has now been connected to the grid. In future this will generate solar power for the requirements of the plant producing biogas on the park.

The STEAG Solar Energy Solutions team planned and implemented the turnkey 750 kWp solar energy installation on behalf of Biogas Forst GmbH & Co. KG. As a facility implemented for EnviTec Biogas Betriebs GmbH & Co. KG, the company which owns Biogas Forst GmbH & Co. KG, the project has a pilot character in that it is the first open-space PV system on a bioenergy park to be designed for the park's own consumption. At the heart of the Forst bioenergy park is a gas processing plant with a capacity of more than 700 standard cubic metres, which since September 2014 has been feeding around 65,000 megawatt hours of green energy into the local natural gas network. In this way 4,000 households are supplied with gas from renewable sources. And from now on the bioenergy park will be even more sustainable: the new PV system installed by SENS covers part of the energy required for the gas processing and biogas plant, so that considerable sections of the bioenergy park can do without conventionally generated electricity. The approx. 2,500 solar panels installed generate around 740 MWh per year. Due to the ideally designed plant size, up to 98% of the energy generated is used directly for the park’s own consumption during the day, while the surplus energy is fed into the public grid.

The successful completion of the final work prior to the commissioning of the open-space PV system must be emphasised. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this work took place under difficult conditions: “In spite of the coronavirus crisis, the project targets were without exception achieved and in some areas even exceeded. Naturally in compliance with the protective regulations currently in force,” reports Fabian Herr, Head of Projects at SENS, adding: “My thanks go to all those involved for their professional commitment even under these special circumstances.”

In the execution of the project SENS was supported by G+H Solar GmbH. This company, headquartered in Sankt Augustin (North Rhine-Westphalia), is a long-standing and experienced partner specialising in the installation of PV parks. Among other projects the two companies have recently successfully completed Solar Parks into Oranienbaum and Gadebusch.

Picture: Thomas Vöhringer