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Start of Construction for Europe's Largest Bifacial Solar Park in Greece

Athens, Greece / Wörrstadt, Germany - In spring 2019, Juwi Hellas, the Greek subsidiary of of the German project developer Juwii, was awarded the contract for the Kozani solar park in the northwest of Greece as part of the state renewable energy (EE) auction.

Juwi has now started construction of the project with a capacity of over 200 megawatts (MW). The owner of the solar park is the Hellenic Petroleum Group.

Largest project under construction in the history of Juwi

The Greek subsidiary of Juwi, the German project developer for renewable energies, has begun construction of the Kozani solar park in Greece. With a total output of 204 megawatts (MW), this is Europe's largest solar project with bifacial solar modules to date. The project is located about 120 kilometers southwest of Thessaloniki in northern Greece. The solar park is being built by the Greek Juwi subsidiary Juwi Hellas on behalf of the Hellenic Petroleum Group.

According to Juwi, the use of the bifacial modules will increase the energy yield of the 450 hectare Kozani solar park by up to five percent. The regenerative power plant is scheduled to go online at the end of 2021. It will then deliver 300 million kilowatt hours of solar power annually, which in purely mathematical terms is sufficient to supply 75,000 Greek households, according to Juwi. The investment volume is 130 million euros.

"This is This is another major step for the juwi group and in particular for our Greek subsidiary, as it is currently our largest single PV project in the company’s 25 year history", says Juwi managing board member Stephan Hansen. Juwi has always believed in the Greek market for renewable energies. The Kozani project confirms this persistence and highlights the enormous potential of solar energy - not just in Greece but all over the world, Hansen continued.

Bifacial module design provides additional yield of up to 10 percent

Bifacial PV modules are more efficient because they use the energy of sunlight on the front and back of the module. While the concept is not new, the technology has been developed recently. Since the modules can also convert reflected and diffuse light into electricity, they achieve an additional yield of up to 10 percent compared to conventional modules. "Solar energy is already the cheapest form of electricity generation in Greece. The technology with bifacial modules reinforces this development again. In this way, we can generate more electricity in less space at even lower costs", says Juwi Hellas Managing Director Takis Sarris.

Project award secured in Greek RE auction in April 2019

Juwi was awarded the Kozani Project at the April 2019 state renewable energy auction. In total, projects with a volume of 635 MW had participated, 437 MW were awarded. With the 204 MW Kozani project, the Juwi share is 47 percent of the awarded capacity. Juwi sold the project to the future operator, the Hellenic Petroleum Group, in early 2020.



Source: IWR Online, 19 Nov 2020

 


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