24.5 MW floating PV plant is the largest of its kind in Austria

02/22/2023

Source: Energy & Management Powernews

"ECOwind" has joined forces with utility EVN to commission a floating solar farm with a capacity of 24.5 MW in Grafenwörth, Lower Austria.

The plant of Baywa Re subsidiary Eco Wind is, according to the companies involved, the largest of its kind in Austria and the fourth largest floating PV plant in Europe - after three projects in the Netherlands, which were also built by Baywa Re.

The approximately 14-hectare floating PV plant in Grafenwörth is located on two lakes of a former sand and gravel pit. The solar park will produce 26.7 million kWh of green electricity per year and can thus supply around 7,500 Austrian households with green energy. The total of 45,304 solar modules were installed in just ten weeks.

Benedikt Ortmann, Global Director of Solar Projects at BayWa Re, commented, "As the market leader for floating PV, we see the great potential of this application for the energy transition. We are creating added value for otherwise unused water areas with this and want to establish it in more regions worldwide." In the turnkey floating PV project in Grafenwörth, the company said it had further improved on systems already successfully implemented in the Netherlands. The installation was carried out in record time without compromising on environmental protection.

In order to ensure that the system integrates optimally into the ecosystem, regular surveys of the fish population as well as the local dragonfly fauna will continue to be carried out in the coming years.

Johann Janker, managing director at Eco Wind: "In Grafenwörth, the challenge was to establish a permit procedure for a new PV application in Austria and to ensure safe construction - which we succeeded in doing even with a height difference of seven meters between the mounting surface and the water." He cited fast installation and easy maintenance as advantages of floating PV, but also a higher electricity yield due to the cooling effect of the water. With the Grafenwörth project, Baywa Re has built 15 floating PV plants worldwide with more than 230 MW. In the past, the company had criticized the restrictive regulations in Germany on the subject of floating PV: The legal situation makes further expansion in this country abundantly unattractive. For example, only 15 percent of the water surface may be used and the plants must be 40 meters from the shore.

Author: Günter Drewnitzky