Municipal utilities produce electricity for e-vehicles with new solar modules
23.11.2021 – Stadtwerke Offenbach wants to become more sustainable in its business operations. To achieve this, they are also harnessing the power of the sun. Electricity is now also being produced for the company's own use on the premises of the Stadtservice Geschäftsfeld in Daimlerstraße.
270 solar modules are installed on the large canopy that protects the large bales of waste paper from the rain. They have been supplying the Stadtservice with electricity since June. "Calculated over the year, we can cover around 17 percent of consumption at this location," says Peter Walther, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Offenbach Holding GmbH. "And we want to become even more sustainable: In addition to our existing solar modules, more are to be added for our own use, including at the site of our subsidiary GBO."
Further solar modules are installed on the workshop roof
Stadtwerke has invested around 90,000 euros in the modules that have now been installed on the trailing roof on Daimlerstrasse. Further modules will be installed on the roof of the site's own workshop in the coming year.
"In the sunniest months, we can probably cover all of Stadtservice's electricity needs, and we expect to cover around 40 percent for the year as a whole," says Christian Müller, Head of Facility Management at Stadtservice. He was commissioned by the management of Stadtwerke to plan and organize the expansion of the photovoltaic system. "For companies like us, but also for schools and daycare centers, a solar system of this kind for their own use is particularly profitable because the most electricity is produced during the day, when it is also consumed the most," says Christian Müller.
First solar modules as early as 2006 - electricity was fed into the grid
Using the sun is nothing new at Stadtservice: the sun has been converted into electricity on the roof of the Stadtservice sorting hall since 2006. However, all the energy produced by these first modules is fed into the municipal power grid. The large column at the entrance to the depot shows how much has been produced since then and how much is currently being produced. Electricity production from the new modules that exceeds the company's own requirements could also be fed into the municipal power grid, but this is rather unlikely.
Stadtwerke pays attention to ways of saving resources in all of its business areas and therefore also uses electricity responsibly. At the same time, however, more and more environmentally friendly e-vehicles and e-appliances such as lawnmowers and chainsaws are being purchased and charged with sustainable energy from the modules. As a result, demand is increasing overall despite savings in other areas. This additional demand is now to be largely offset by the new solar modules.
In addition to the company premises in Daimlerstrasse, Stadtwerke has also installed solar modules on the roof of the leather museum, on GBO properties in Hugo-Wolf-Strasse and on the Stadtwerke site in Senefelder Strasse.
November 23, 2021