Voltwerk builds Germany's biggest solar plant
Date: 16-Aug-01
Country: GERMANY
Voltwerk is a subsidiary of Conergy AG, one of Europe's leading suppliers of solar energy.
The 600 kilowatt unit, will be linked to the Isar-Amperwerke power grid from November.
Soctenau is one of the sunniest regions in Germany and is thus "an ideal location for a particularly efficient community solar plant," said Martin Bucher, head of voltwerk AG, in a statement.
The plant will produce around 600,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of power a year, equivalent to a quarter of the electricity demand of 2,500 households in Soechtenau.
The firms benefits from Germany's Renewable Energy Law (EEG), according to which energy suppliers have to pay solar power generators a surcharge of 99 pfennigs per kWh of solar-generated electricity that is fed into the grid.
"Investment in solar energy is at present as attractive as never before," the statement said, adding that the new plant will yield around 590,000 marks a year from the surcharge.
Operation of the plant will cut emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by around 600 tonnes a year, the firm said.
"Citizens can buy a share in the community plant for as little as 10,000 marks (and) additional payments are not necessary," Bucher said.
The firms is offering investors a pre-tax yield of 6.32 percent and a dividend of around 12.1 percent a year, for over 20 years.
Limited investors have reduced risk in that they are not liable to pay more than their initial share purchase should a company go bankrupt.
Voltwerk is using credit from the government for the construction of the plant, as part of the national climate protection programme's so-called "100,000 roofs" solar plan.
Hamburg-based SunTechnics Solartechnik GmbH will construct the plant.