The second part of an solar PV power plant of superlatives is currently being installed at the Gahro airfield – again with participation of SunStrom. While the first part of the free-field solar PV power plant has a total DC nameplate rating of 16 Megawatts, the second part will hold a capacity of 11 Megawatts. Both parts will use more than 116,000 solar modules with a gross collector area of almost 190,000 square meters.

Altogether the solar PV power plant will hold a capacity of 27 Megawatts and will be one of the largest plants in Germany. For SunStrom – which already has installed more than 60 free-field solar PV power plants or solar parks – this project is the largest one of its corporate history so far.
[05-08-2011]

  Today the first ever affordable and self-powered detached house in Europe was formally inaugurated in the town of Lehrte of Lower Saxony. This innovative house of HELMA Eigenheimbau AG with 162 square metres of living space was newly developed in the last two years under the direction of Professor Timo Leukefeld together with SunStrom.

The house draws its entire yearly energy requirement solely from the sun itself. Because of this, the entire south-facing roof is used: the solar heat plant in the upper part produces the thermal energy required, the solar electricity plant in the lower part produces the electrical energy required. What is exceptional about this is that both systems are equipped with appropriate storage technology in order to bridge over periods of scarce sunlight, and even periods of no sunlight at all. Thus, for the first time, you can be completely independent from the public power supply, and the energy footprints reached to date of ultra-low, zero or positive energy houses have been surpassed. Real self-sufficient energy has been achieved as the result.

SunStrom is primarily responsible for the concept of generating and storing solar electricity during the development of 'the self-sufficient energy house'. Solar modules from SOLARWATT were chosen for the aesthetically pleasing rooftop solar power system which has a capacity of 8.2 kWp.

The heating and the hot water supply of this residential building are not stream-based as often is the case (for example, with an electronically operated thermal pump), but instead they function with the aid of a solar thermal plant. In this way the entire solar electricity produced can be directly used for one's own employment of household appliances. Hence the so-called primary energy requirement (energy requirement of the entire housing technology) in the energy self-sufficient house comes to a total of around 1,500 kWh (kilowatts per hour) every year. This is considerably less that the otherwise total average of 10,000 to 15,000 kWh per year of a similar new building, according to the current effective requirements of the Energieeinsparverordnung (EnEV - German Energy Conservation Requirements).

The CEOs of SunStrom, Reiner Matthees and Stephan Riedel, are both agreed on this point: "we are proud that we were able to bring in our years of experience in practice and research to the photovoltaic sector and to be instrumental in the development of 'the self-sufficient energy house'."

[05-05-2011]

In Erfurt, located in the central German state of Thuringia, SunStrom recently installed a further PV solar power facility. The grid-tied, ground-mounted photovoltaic “Solar Park Erfurt-Gispersleben” was erected on the property of a former gas turbine power station. The solar facility is divided into three separate fields with a total of ca. 3700 monocrystalline solar panels.
With a nameplate DC power rating of 895 kWp, the facility will generate approximately 825,000 kWh of electricity annually, thus avoiding about 530 tons of CO₂ emissions. Erfurt is very excited about the power facility: it contributes to the city’s existing reputation as a solar city and brings them a step closer to realizing their goal of an environmentally friendly city. Currently, Erfurt is working on a climate protection plan which, by 2020, aims to reduce CO₂ emissions by 20% (as compared to 2008).

[14-02-2011]

Not only is it a new record for SunStrom, but also for the German city of Dresden; the free-field solar PV power plant installed inside the horse racetrack at the Galopprennbahn Dresden. The non-paralleled solar array has broken the records for solar power generated in Dresden.

The solar array, producing power since the end of 2010, is located directly inside the racetrack itself. It covers an area of almost 60,000 square metres, elevating it to the largest solar PV array generating power inside city bounds in all of Germany. It is not only the biggest PV power plant in the city of Dresden, but also the biggest PV array in Germany installed within a sporting grounds. Mounted in over 140 rows, more than 12,600 monocrystalline modules manufactured by SOLARWATT were installed by SunStrom with a total DC nameplate rating of 2.4 Megawatts. 170 solar inverters convert the over 2,000 Megawatt hours of generated DC current into AC current to feed in to the utility grid.

[10-01-2011]