Almost 4,000 panels were installed across the roofs of the campus, which is located near Munich. The plant is connected to the public grid and has a peak output of 1.7 megawatts peak. Delo will use the electricity for itself and can therefore supply around 30% of its own annual electricity requirements.
"Compared to typical chemical companies with higher syntheses, we have very low energy requirements at Delo," said Christian Walther, managing director of the SME. "Two major contributors [to our energy consumption] are production itself and the cooling units for refrigerated adhesive storage. Especially on warm, sunny days when more electricity is needed for cooling, the PV system subsequently produces more electricity. This suits our needs very well.”
In addition to lightweight panels with a high solar-cell efficiency of around 21.5%, the company was also keen to install an intelligent control system to optimally connect each roof and to work with a local partner on this project.
The next photovoltaics project is already being planned. Delo will also install a PV system on the roof of its warehouse building, which is currently under construction. A peak output of 600 kilowatts peak is expected.
