XXL (Weesow-Willmersdorf) solar park is a 187MW solar project being developed in Brandenburg, Germany. It will be the largest solar park in the country and will supply power to 50,000 households.
EnBW owns the project through EnBW Solarpark Weesow-Willmersdorf. It acquired the project from the previous developer Procon Solar in July 2018. The company is developing the solar park without government subsidy and is evaluating different options to market the electricity produced from the project.
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The solar park is expected to generate approximately 180 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, offsetting approximately 129,000t of CO₂ a year.
The project construction began in March 2020 and the Weesow-Willmersdorf solar park is expected to begin operations by the end of 2020. The photovoltaic power plant will be in service for 40 years.
XXL solar park location
The XXL solar project is being built on an area of 164ha in the Weesow and Willmersdorf suburbs.
The site is situated in the city of Werneuchen, approximately 26km northeast of Berlin, in the Barnim district.
XXL solar park make-up
The project will include over 465,000 solar modules distributed over four solar fields, divided by a network of paths within the site.
It will employ TSM-DEG15M.20(II) Duomax modules, featuring 144 half-cut cells and up to 410Wp output.
The Duomax double-glass modules being used for the park are designed to deliver reliability even under challenging environmental conditions. The modules use lighter 2+2mm glass and aluminium frames to facilitate easy transportation and installation.
The dual-glass structure of the module provides a longer lifespan while also delivering more power through half-cut cells and multi-busbar technology.
The electricity produced from the solar park will be fed to three 110kV overhead cables operated by network operator E.DIS Netz.
The project will include two new transformer stations. One of the transformers will be situated to the west (near Börnicke) of the park and the other to the southwest (in Blumberg).
The solar park will be connected to the Börnicke transformer station via a 4km-long underground cable and to the transformer station in Blumberg via a 7km underground cable connection. It will also be connected to the EnBW control centre in Barhöft for monitoring the technical equipment at the facility.
Project construction timeline
Land-use planning for the project with changes to the zoning plan and preparation of the development plan commenced in 2009. The building permit for the solar park was secured in August 2019 while final investment decision was made in October 2019.
The initial works for the solar park included the preparation of the subsurface, delivery of cable reels, digging of cable trenches, and laying of cables.
The first 18,000 solar modules were delivered at the construction site in June 2020 while assembling works started in July 2020. Foundations have been laid for the Börnicke transformer station in July 2020. Construction for the operating building of the Blumberg transformer station to house the switchgear was already completed.
In addition, the company laid over 120km of underground cables within the solar park as of June 2020, completing about half of the internal cabling work.
Contractors involved
Trina Solar was contracted by EnBW to supply solar modules for the solar project.
Prysmian won a contract worth over €3.5m ($4m) to deliver 7,500km of its TECSUN cables for the cabling of the PV modules.
Gantner Instruments Environment Solutions was selected to provide a monitoring and control solution.
