SMA Technologie AG Receives Large Order for World’s Largest Solar Power Plant
Kassel/Niestetal, 14 May 2007
Source: SMA Technologie AG /press release
http://www2.sma.de/en/news-detail/article/942/
By the year 2009, SMA will supply all the system technology for a solar power system near Leipzig, Germany, which is to have a capacity of 36 MW
SMA Technologie AG has accepted the largest single order it has ever received for central inverters. Between April 2007 and August 2008, the company plans to deliver 42 Sunny Centrals, each with a capacity of 500 kW, to juwi solar GmbH, which is managing the installation. Delivery of another 30 units is scheduled for 2009. In addition, the order includes all solar data systems technology necessary for Internet-based system monitoring. The solar power plant, built on an unused former military airfield near Brandis, not far from Leipzig, is at present the largest photovoltaic system in the world, promising CO2 savings of approximately 25,000 tons per year.
“SMA delivered 100,000 inverters last year alone. In comparison, 72 units is a small amount. But these are central inverters which are being implemented here, each of which generates more than 120 times the power of an average PV system,” explains Gerd Hackenberg, Head of the Central Inverters division. “This is a step up to a dimension which shows that conventional power generation can be replaced in the foreseeable future, without potential nuclear risk and without endangering the climate.”
By installing the inverters in the immediate vicinity of the modules, the costs of cabling and installation can be reduced. State-of-the-art thin-film modules are implemented on a 110-hectare area, the size of 200 football fields. These modules provide the same amount of power as conventional modules, but with considerably lower raw material costs. These 550,000 modules and the ground-level substructure are also produced in Germany, and are evidence of the increasing significance of renewable energy sources as a job generator in the domestic labor market. In addition, approximately 100 workers from the Leipzig region will be employed in the construction of the Brandis solar park. At SMA in Niestetal near Kassel, Germany, one of the consequences of this large order is that 12 additional apprenticeship positions can be created for electrical systems technician trainees.