Solar plant to be added to Vattenfall's Geesthacht pumped storage facility.

Vattenfall has now started construction of a ground-mounted photovoltaic plant at the Geesthacht pumped storage power station (PSW) in Schleswig-Holstein. At Germany's northernmost pumped storage facility, the company will install around 5,000 solar modules with an output of 2.4 megawatts (MW) on the dam of the upper reservoir in the coming weeks. The necessary preliminary work is already underway. The photovoltaic plant in Geesthacht is one of several projects in which Vattenfall is adding solar power generation to pumped storage plants.

At the Markersbach pumped storage facility in the Erz Mountains, which is one of the largest pumped storage facilities in Germany with an installed output of 1,050 MW, Vattenfall has already started construction of a photovoltaic plant in the summer of 2020. The plant consists of around 11,000 solar modules, has an installed output of 4.3 MW and is currently in the commissioning phase. In addition, Vattenfall has already equipped roof areas of the Markersbach PSW with PV modules, so that a total of seven megawatts of new photovoltaic output are in operation or under construction at the hydropower plants.

Add solar to existing power plants

Claus Wattendrup, Head of the Solar & Batteries Business Unit at Vattenfall: "Vattenfall wants to enable a fossil-free life within a generation. The further expansion of renewable energies plays a decisive role in this, and we want to continue to grow in this area. A sensible building block in this strategy is to add photovoltaics to existing energy generation plants. In addition, the use of existing technical infrastructure leads to synergies that also favour the economic viability of solar power."

Peter Apel, Managing Director of Vattenfall Wasserkraft GmbH: "Vattenfall has been operating hydropower plants in northern and eastern Germany for decades. Our pumped storage plants serve as storage units for the renewable energies that continue to grow and are a guarantee for grid stability. Therefore, it is consistent to further expand renewable energy also in the regions where we have long been an integral part of the local energy infrastructure."

Combining today and tomorrow

The photovoltaic projects at Vattenfall's German hydropower plants exemplify how the existing and tomorrow's energy worlds can be combined in a meaningful way. Vattenfall is currently implementing the addition of photovoltaics to existing sites, particularly in Germany and the Netherlands.

Currently, Vattenfall has a total of around 100 megawatts of solar energy in operation and under construction. In addition to the solar projects at the pumped storage plants, the company is currently building the 28 MW Kogel-Leizen open-space solar park in Germany in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania along the A 19 motorway not far from the Wittstock-Dosse motorway interchange. Other projects involving several hundred megawatts of solar energy are also in the planning stage. (mfo)

11 March 2021

pv magazine