‘Germany’s largest floating solar plant’ starts assembling (Video)

Germany-based energy company LEAG and project developer EP New Energies have started assembly work, together with Pfalzsolar, on what is described as Germany’s “largest floating solar plant”.

Situated on the eastern shore of the Cottbus Baltic Sea, the country’s largest post-mining lake. The 29 MWp floating solar plant is set to generate approximately 29,000 MWh of electricity a year, with commissioning set for the winter of 2024/2025. 

“The floating PV plant on the Cottbus Baltic Sea, one of our lighthouse projects within the LEAG GigawattFactory, is nearing completion,” said LEAG CEO, Thorsten Kramer. 

“This project will give LEAG and the region a further boost towards a sustainable future in which energy supply security and climate protection are equally guaranteed.”

In the upcoming months, about 51,000 solar modules are planned to be mounted on roughly 1,800 floating structures, referred to as solar boats. 

The solar modules will be pre-assembled onto the solar boats at the shore. Once assembled, the solar boats will be transported by boat to their designated locations. The system’s technical setup comprises 88 inverters, eight transformer stations, and two medium-voltage systems.

With the current water depth at approximately 1.50 meters, the installation of system components can proceed securely. Even during seasonal water level decreases, the components can still be floated in, said LEAG. 

Pfalzsolar has been tasked with constructing the system. Spanning over 16 hectares, the system area occupies less than one percent of the lake’s total area, aligning with its tourism objectives.

“I’m looking forward to the implementation of Germany’s largest floating PV system. The original concept was to build the system on the dry lake bed and float it up when the opencast mine lake was flooded. Due to the heavy rainfall at the end of last year, the lake flooded much faster than predicted, so we had to change our concept to a floating installation. As project developers, we are used to reacting quickly to new situations in order to make projects a success,” said Dominique Guillou, Managing Director of EPNE.

Germany is recognizing floating solar as a valuable renewable energy source, with recent projects highlighting this shift. Just in March 2023, SINN Power, a German-based developer of floating renewable energy platform solutions, put forward a plan to build a floating solar power plant in Eching am Ammersee, south-east Germany.