A somewhat different-from-the-ordinary ground-breaking ceremony for a 2.5 Megawatt photovoltaic power plant took place in Unterbreizbach, Thuringia, on June 26th. Instead of breaking grounds with a spade, Mayor Roland Ernst and operating company EEUG’s CEO Christa Adler got their hands on the pile-driver and set the first of several hundred ramming foundations into the earth. EPC is in the hands of PV expert SunEnergy Europe from Hamburg, who have already installed several megawatt-size solar power plants on brownfield areas.

The Unterbreizbach PV installation is erected on the ash dump of a potash mining company which used to be powered by coal power plant. Technically, the power generated from the modules will cover approximately half of the community’s electricity demand. As SunEnergy Europe’s CEO, Dr. Hartwig Westphalen, puts it, “We are always delighted to witness a part of the energy transition as happens here in Unterbreizbach, where clean energy supersedes the era of fossile and nuclear energy.”

EEUG’s CEO Christa Adler keeps her fingers crossed for a smooth and safe construction period and looks forward to the official  starting of operations by the end of August – hopefully in full sunshine!

Read the press release of Solar Energy Rising from the Ashes.