Maximum Reliability with the Sunny Central 1000MV

The longest PV plant in the world is located right above the A3 Autobahn between Hösbach and Aschaffenburg. Anybody traveling down the six-lane freeway is driving directly under this plant. The freeway is designed as a tunnel of a length of over 2.7 kilometers in order to protect the residents along the freeway from the noise. The local electricity company Goldbach-Hösbach (EGH) and the Ralos Vertriebs GmbH use the roof surface of the tunnel to produce environmentally friendly electricity. While traffic itself is responsible for around 20 % of the CO2 emissions in Germany, the PV plant with a total power of 2,649 kilowatt peak saves about 1,760 tons of CO2 per year. In comparison: in 2007 the per capita output of CO2 in Germany was 9.7 tons.

The SMA inverter stations feed the solar electricity directly to the 20 kV medium-voltage grid of Goldbach-Hösbach electricity company with the integrated medium-voltage transformer. This makes the solar yield with SMA inverters especially efficient.

Plant Size

• 2,649 kWp (West: 1,018 kWp, Center: 851 kWp, East: 780 kWp)
• 16,000 modules, EvergreenSolar

Location

• A3 Autobahn Goldbach/Hösbach
• System Engineering + Installation: Ralos Vertriebs GmbH
• System Operator: Elektrizitätswerke Goldbach-Hösbach GmbH & Co. KG (West), A3-Solar GmbH (Center + East)
• Commissioning: 2008 to 2009 (in several construction phases)

Annual Yield

• 950 kWh/kWp
• 2,500,000 kWh
• CO2 reduction: 1,760 t

Inverters

• West: Sunny Central 1000MV (2 x Sunny Central 500HE)
• Center: Sunny Central 1000MV (Sunny Central 500HE, Sunny Central 350HE)
• East: Sunny Central 1000MV (Sunny Central 500HE, Sunny Central 250HE)