In early 2013, the local council from Nuthe-Urstromtal decided to designate a special PV zone in Lynow, a village within the Federal State of Brandenburg.
The decision of the council was unanimous as to which tract of land would be appropriate to allow for PV development. It was decided to designate a location that until 1989 served as a pre-military training center for the Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik (Sport and Technology Association) in the former GDR. The center was established for young people in the GDR to obtain mandatory pre-military, sport, and technical equipment training. In 1989, the training center was closed and in the 1990s the buildings served as temporary housing for German emigrants from the former Soviet Union resettling in Germany due to economic difficulties.
The location was eventually abandoned after the 90s and the neglected buildings began to degrade. Because the buildings were empty, illegal waste became dumped here. The site deteriorated into an eyesore along the main road (L73) leading to Lynow and the local citizens welcomed an improvement for the neglected and contaminated grounds.
In April 2014 a plan for a 1,560 kWp PV plant to replace the abandoned buildings was presented to the community by the Nuthe-Urstromtal local council. Ka-Energy Solutions, invested 1.7 Million Euros into developing the PV project and additionally to serve as the EPC for the solar park and manage daily operations and maintenance after the commissioning.
Delta RPI M50A inverters were selected for the system due to their robust and reliable design, perfect for large ground-mounted PV systems. The M50A consists of a high quality aluminum chassis coated with a special finish that makes the inverters very durable and corrosion-resistant. But above all the M50A units feature a 98.6 % peak efficiency which ensures a high yield from the solar array for many years. The construction phase of Solarpark Oscar-Barnack Strasse Lynow by Ka-Energy lasted for a total of 4 months and the commissioning ceremony took place with the Mayor, Ms. Monika Nestler, in attendance on August 31, 2015.
The new solar park is now completed by Ka-Energy and generating an estimated 1,516 MWh electricity annually, enough to power around 400 households in the region. Furthermore, the park is providing annual savings of 1,400 tons of carbon dioxide – a value representing the CO2 emissions of 750 cars on the road. The project was successful not only in cleaning up a neglected and contaminated locale but also in transforming this blot on the landscape into a clean energy source for several communities. It gives proof that large PV projects can be responsibly planned in order to have minimal impact on local vegetation and habitats, and even to improve the situation when contaminated ground is eliminated.
