Clad in wood, the little house stands in the middle of a gravel field. Ochre-colored plain roof tiles cover its pointy gable. A bird feeder over the door entices sparrows and woodpeckers. At first glance, the wooden hayrick in the Swabian city of Ichenhausen, Germany, does not look like a megawatt station of an inverter manufacturer. Only the steel door with the company logo and the yellow danger triangle give it away.
Solarpark Deubach
By Iris Krampitz
Solarpark Deubach
“We are not a classic project developer who only wants to maximize profit,” explains Horst Walz, Managing Director of Vento Ludens, which realized the freestanding system “Solarpark Deubach” The solar plant should produce environmentally friendly electricity for 30 years. For this project, however, it is also important that it fits into the landscape. “So we have invested a part of our budget in various beautification measures,” emphasized Walz. To this counts, for example, the wood cladding around the three concrete stations where a total of eight inverters are housed. With great care, the company, based in Jettingen, Germany, has also sown a large variety of regional plants between the rows of solar modules on the premises of a former gravel pit.
The solar park in Deubach, a district of the city of Ichenhausen, is Vento Ludens’s first freestanding system and, with an output of 2.8 megawatts, the largest in the region. Around 14,000 crystalline solar modules produce about three million kilowatt hours of electricity every year, which is enough for 850 four-member households. Which means as well that the solar plant saves 18,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Fund Guarantees High Returns
While drinking mulled and sparkling wine, eating fried sausages and German gingerbread, Walz and his project partners inaugurated the solar plant in December 2009. In addition to investors, engineers, operators and journalists, regional politicians participated in the festivities in the heated beer tent. The mayor of Ichenhausen, Hans Klement, praised in particular the greenery and design of the freestanding system. He was also impressed by “the super team, which set up and built the plant in only two months”
In total, the solar project cost nine million euros. “At the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, people were still negotiating, but Deubach has already acted,” said Hans-Martin Herbel, Managing Director of the operating company, at the inauguration. The solar park is a down-to-earth investment. All the investors come from the region. Private investors of the fund abakus balance GmbH & Co. KG raised the equity capital. A consortium from nine regional banks took over the external financing.
Hydroelectric, biogas and PV plants make up around 30% of abakus’s investment volume, whereas the solar energy stands on the first position regarding renewable energies. Its portion should grow. “We want to expand the solar fund further and, of course, participate in the Solarpark Deubach II as well,” said Herbel. The project partners want to build the system” With an output of 1.8 megawatts” In the same location in the spring of 2010. In order to maximize the profit for the investors, who can get involved starting at 5,000 euros, Herbel is doing without a middleman. For the operators of the plant in Deubach, he anticipates returns of 7% to 8%.
From Carcassonne to Solar Energy
“With our direct investments, we can influence projects decisively,” said Herbel, who places great emphasis on installing exclusively high-quality components from central-European manufacturers. He was, therefore, very satisfied with Vento Ludens’s selection. The planners decided on monocrystalline silicon modules from the German manufacturer Sovello AG and on the Swiss SolarMax 330C-SV central inverters from Sputnik Engineering AG. Two to three inverters each feed their electricity from the three wooden hayricks directly into the medium-voltage grid of the local utility.
Vento Ludens’s boss Horst Walz would also like to advance the solar business further. The emphasis of his company, however, “still” lies on making board games. Vento Ludens is a subsidiary of Ludo Fact, the largest German board-game manufacturer, which sells 13 million games a year. The company delivers Carcassonne, the Settlers of Catan & Co to 170 publishing houses.
In 2008, Walz installed his first PV plant. “We have almost reached the saturation limit of board games. Renewable energies will grow the strongest in the next 50 years,” said the family father, who values both businesses highly. In 2010 alone, he plans to build PV plants with a total output of 25 megawatts. Since he focuses solely on freestanding plants with SolarMax inverters, his homeland will certainly get more electricity-producing wooden hayricks with bird feeders in the future.
Iris Krampitz is an international contributor to InterPV.
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