The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is about to install 1 megawatt of solar panels.
The Institute says it will be the largest photovoltaics facility designed purely for self-consumption in Germany.
“The photovoltaics facility will not only be used to cover own power consumption, but also to conduct research,” says Dr. Olaf Wollersheim, who is managing the first phase of the project.
Detlef Neuhaus, Chief Executive Officer of SOLARWATT, the company supplying the system; says the project will provide very important data. “Joint research based on a facility of this size in cooperation with KIT enables us to maintain our knowledge lead.”
Energy yield and aging behaviour under real-world conditions will be studied; with the goal of developing regenerative energy systems of increased energy efficiency and longer service life. Grid compatibility, novel energy storage systems, intelligent power electronics and system controls will also be examined.
Increasing energy costs can really chew into the budgets of research institutions such as KIT. The contribution to electricity bill savings the system will provide will be significant.
The new system will generate approximately 2% of KIT’s power needs and while this may not sound like a great deal; it will reduce the Institution’s electricity bills by around EUR 200,000 a year. The system will pay for itself in around 7.5 years.
In Australia, the evolution of commercial scale solar combined with skyrocketing electricity costs can mean even faster payback times for companies and organisations installing systems.
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is one of Europe’s leading energy research establishments. With 9000 employees and 24000 students, KIT is also one of the biggest research and education institutions in Europe. The Institute was founded in 2009 after a merger of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and Universität Karlsruhe.
