World's largest PV system planned for former NATO airport

A new, possibly world record-breaking PV system is slated for construction in Rhineland-Palatinate. The location will be the former NATO airport Pferdsfeld, which currently is owned by real estate company Trierer Wohnungsbaugesellschaft AG (TRIWO). The area is 400,000 m² – enough space to build a 15 to 18 MW PV system. Negotiations between TRIWO and potential investors have entered the final stages. 

The construction commission of the municipality Bad Sobernheim already approved the plan in February, though it didn't reveal concrete figures or information about potential investors. TRIWO would only say it is in discussions with »one or two market-leading companies.« The project's planning phase should be completed during 2005. And, as the local newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung reports, public authorities are not expected to pose any problems.

While nature conservation organizations have not yet signed off on the project, Rolf Model from the German Society for Nature Conservation (NABU) doesn't foresee any fundamental problems, since the area is not considered highly ecologically valuable land. In fact, the entire area has been designated an industrial site. Plus, an initial landscape management examination conducted on behalf of TRIWO lead to positive results. If the project receives final approval, utility RWE will provide the transmission station for grid feed-in of the electricity produced by the system. According to TRIWO, the investors plan to construct the PV system and then transfer ownership to an investment fund.

Jens Lüdecke
© PHOTON International, March 2005