On 24 May 2022, Quarzwerke in Haltern am See commissioned Germany's largest floating PV plant. Around 110 invited guests witnessed the "switch being flipped".
The plant will be in trial operation until the end of May. So far, everything is running smoothly, so we expect to be producing electricity for our production and the region from June onwards.
The plant floats on a former extraction lake, Silver Lake III, on an area of just under 1.8 hectares, which corresponds to about 2.3 % of the lake area.
5,800 solar modules were screwed onto a total of 360 floating elements on the shore of the lake in April and brought onto the lake with special solar boats. For optimal energy yield, the solar modules are oriented east/west and installed with an inclination of 12 degrees. In this way, a uniformly high energy yield can be achieved throughout the day. The use of glass-glass modules ensures that sufficient light can continue to fall on the water surface.
2,230 floats reliably keep the system afloat. A total of 24 special anchors, installed at depths ranging from 13.5 m to 23 m, ensure that the installation floats on the Silver Lake III exactly at the location defined for it. A breakwater almost 300 m long protects the plant from storms.
The floating PV plant will reach a nominal output of about 3.1 megawatt peak and produce about 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year. This will enable Quarzwerke to save about 1,100 tonnes of CO2 every year. Part of the electricity will be fed into the public grid as green electricity.
For Quarzwerke, this is the first floating photovoltaic plant, after plants have already been planned or built on land at various locations. This plant is an important step for Quarzwerke towards becoming a CO2-friendly company.
