Europe’s largest solar farm Witznitz commissioned in eastern Germany

Hansainvest Real Assets and developer Move On Energy inaugurated a solar park of 605 MW in peak capacity on coal land near Leipzig in Germany. Already the biggest facility of its kind in Europe, it is about to grow by another 45 MW.

Just 22 months after breaking ground, insurance and financial services company Signal Iduna’s investment firm Hansainvest Real Assets inaugurated the Witznitz solar farm of 605 MW in peak terms.

The project was conducted by its partner Move On Energy, which is preparing to connect its own remaining segment of 45 MW to the grid by the end of June.

Witznitz may not stay largest for long

The facility just south of Leipzig in Germany’s east surpassed Iberdrola’s Francisco Pizarro, completed in 2022, as the biggest in Europe. The photovoltaic plant in Spain has 590 MW in peak capacity and a 553 MW network connection.

It should be noted that Turkey hosts a solar power plant of 1.35 GW or 1 GW, respectively, commissioned a year ago. But it is located in Asia Minor, in Karapınar in Konya province, so not geographically in Europe. There is also an 850 MW cluster of 17 solar power units in Spain.

In addition, Iberdrola is working on a 1.2 GW project in Portugal. Its Francisco Pizzaro facility was the largest until now.

It’s increasingly hard to keep track of all the megasolar investments in the continent. A significant share is in Southeastern Europe, particularly in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro.

Photovoltaics took over from hydropower last year on the global level as the segment with the biggest nominal electricity generation capacity.

Shell, Microsoft snatched almost entire output

The new solar park at lake Hainer in Germany consists of ten sections and 1.1 million modules. The first part came online in December.

The site encompasses more than 500 hectares within the former Witznitz 2 open pit coal mine and 150 hectares of adjacent land. It spans the territories of Neukieritzsch, Böhlen and Rötha. The investors said they are testing agrisolar production on over five hectares. Also known as agrivoltaics, the term stands for agricultural activities and solar power in the same place.

Shell Energy Europe signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) in September for 600 MW in Witznitz. Separately it struck a deal with Microsoft to supply it with output from 323 MW.

Aiming to mitigate environmental and social impact, Hansainvest and Move On built roads with cycling and hiking paths of 13 kilometers in total, with hedges along the fences together with forest areas on 13 hectares.