OREANDA-NEWS. In the middle of October RWE has officially commissioned the largest photovoltaics plant in Hungary. The 16 MW plant is located approximately 2 km from the town of Visonta, northeast of Budapest.

The station comprises 72,480 solar modules with a nominal capacity of 255 watts each. In a sunny country like Hungary the plant will produce electricity from dawn to dusk on most days. Enough to supply approximately 4,000 households with renewable energy. The CO2 emissions of the country will be reduced by 24,000 tonnes. And the plant is also a prime example of sustainability in another sense: It was built on top of a decommissioned sludge basin that was expertly filled in and covered after 20 years.

Peter Terium, CEO of RWE AG: “This photovoltaics park is not just the largest in Hungary, it is also one of RWE’s largest. With a capacity of 16 MW and a reduction of CO2 emissions by 24,000 tonnes, it will have a substantial impact on climate protection and reduce Hungary’s dependency on imports significantly. This shows once again that Hungary is an important core market for RWE.”

The project was implemented in collaboration with companies from Hungary, Austria and Romania. The preparation phase of the project commenced in early 2013, construction work started on 1 June 2015. Marie-Theres Thiell, CEO of RWE Hung?ria adds: “I am delighted about this major investment in Hungary. This will largely benefit companies from Hungary and the region. The economic and geographic conditions here are excellent. The solar power station has successfully completed a trial run and in spite of the weaker autumn sun the power output exceeded 15.6 MW.”

At the end of 2014 the installed solar energy capacity in Hungary was approximately
80 MW. The share of renewables in gross power consumption was 6.8% at the time. By the end of 2020 this is to increase to at least 10.9%.