PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Solarparc starts PV funds for 9 MW

In September, German company Solarparc AG began offering shares for its new solar fund, with 4.1 MW of installed power and an investment sum of €18.4 million ($22.7 million).

	© Solarparc AG
Connected: The first of four systems of the Solar Fund Donau in Hofkirchen, Germany.

The minimum investment is €10,000 ($12,340); no premium is required. The project, called Donau I, is split into two locations around the town of Passau in Southern Germany. One is a 2.37 MW ground-mounted system in Hofkirchen, which is already connected to the grid, and the other a 1.76 MW system in Aidenbach, which ought to be installed and put into operation any day now. The central inverters (types SC 250, SC 350, and SC 500 MV) were delivered by SMA; the modules come from Bonn,
Germany-based SolarWorld AG.

With a projected profit dividend of 223 percent, the forecasted yield of the fund before tax is 6.1 percent. The calculation is backed up by two independent location appraisals from Augsburg, Germany-based Meteocontrol GmbH and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg, Germany, which predict an annual yield of 4 MWh per year or 970 kWh per kW of installed power.

The fund's limited liability capital adds up to €4.6 million ($5.7 million) or 25 percent of the total; the parties responsible for outside financing are banks Sachsen LB and the German Development Bank (KfW). Project-related costs are €17.3 million ($21.3 million) and thereby account for 94 percent of the total investment. After the 20-year duration, Solarparc plans to take over the parks and keep them running. The company has scheduled to issue another fund in the fourth quarter of 2005: Donau II will have »nearly identical conditions« and two PV systems with 5.1 MW in total. All shares of both funds are scheduled to be sold by the end of the year.

Solarparc, which operates solar and wind power systems financed through funds, and integrated PV company SolarWorld are formally separate companies, but in terms of personnel and organization, the two companies are intermingled. While Solarparc is changing its focus toward solar investments – also indicated by a name change from WindWelt to Solarparc in May and sales of its shares in wind power system producer Fuhrländer AG and a 3.2 MW wind park, the first half-year 2005 report published on Aug. 12 shows that wind power still clearly dominates the business with an 84-percent share of the €3.66 million ($4.51 million) in turnover.