BayWa r.e., together with its Dutch partner GroenLeven, recently completed two floating solar parks in Nij Beets and Kloosterhaar, Netherlands. The sites combined contain more than 70,000 solar panels and a total capacity of 29.2 MWp, enough to supply 9,000 Dutch households with clean energy.
Floating solar parks offer the opportunity to give unusable areas of water a new benefit to the community. The Nij Beets project is a dual-function site and is already serving as a sand extraction lake. This helps to minimise the issue of limited space for renewable sources in highly populated regions.
The completion of these two projects furthers BayWa r.e.’s growth across Europe. It is the sixth Floating-PV project that the company has completed in only two years. With a total installation base of close to 100 MWp in Europe today, BayWa r.e. continues to extend its position as European market leader for Floating-PV.
Dr. Benedikt Ortmann, Global Director of Solar Projects at BayWa r.e. explained: “Prudently designed and built, Floating-PV can be as cost effective as regular ground-mounted solar over the operation period of 25-30 years. We see a great interest from financial markets in our award-winning technology, as it has been proven by reality and examined by several independent technical experts already. It offers a win-win situation for the environment, local communities and - above all – a cost effective energy transition.”
As part of its commitment to ensuring biodiversity to thrive together with the Floating-PV installation, BayWa r.e. and its Dutch subsidiary GroenLeven is partnering with IVN, Institute for Nature Education and Sustainability to monitor and study the plants over the next five years. Both sites contain special panels and skylights to ensure that enough light and air are still reaching the water surface. Only 23% of available water space at Nij Beets has been used, leaving space near the banks to protect flora and fauna.
In addition to the efforts to maintain and improve biodiversity, all project parties have committed to a community fund for the local areas. An educational program and ongoing participation opportunities for the local communities will aim to grow understanding of and sympathy towards sustainability.
