According to Albasolar, the Tauernwind project is the largest solar installation not only in Austria, but also in Europe. The developer, which is also responsible for the nearby wind project, invested almost €5 million to convert the Niedere Tauern massif into “a key European mountain range to house renewable energy plants”. Local workers built the plant, and most of the PV components are European.
A project with scientific interest
“We are convinced that this is a great project to show the quality of European products and the flexibility of our company to deliver, counting on our almost 20 years of experience in the PV sector,” Alberto Sanroman, Global Managing Director of Albasolar, said about the project, which has “captured the interest of the scientific community”.
The company’s Managing Director, Amparo Peralta, noted that Austria is a challenging market “because the photovoltaic sector hasn’t quite taken off”; however, Albasolar is confident of its potential. Peralta added that the project was successful because “our customer believed in PV, and his choice led him to create a strong reference project for photovoltaic ground systems, a segment which last year made up only 6.3% of the 86% of rooftop installations”.
REC reliability
REC was chosen to supply the modules for the array, because they offer a reliable power output under extreme climate conditions. They are capable of withstanding winds of 140 kilometres per hour and snow weighing up to 9 kN/square metre which is common in this mountainous region.
The facility will generate 2.5 thousand kWh of clean energy per annum; equivalent to the power demand of 700 families, and will avoid the emission of 2,000 tonnes a year, which equates to savings of 825 tonne/year of fossil fuel.
The extreme conditions at the site of the plant are, in fact, expected to facilitate a high rate of energy capture. REC modules – ranked first in Photon results for all of 2011 so far – are optimised for all sunlight and meteorological conditions, while the low ambient temperature, extra cooling by the strong winds, and low pollution levels at the Niedere Tauern site will actually help to boost the plant’s output.
This project means a “huge step” in the positioning of Albasolar GmbH in Austria, since its only involvement in the country’s renewable energy sector before now had been to install a number of hydro power facilities.
[Photo: Taueren Hohe National Park (Austria)]
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