Sunny prospects for the city's energy balance

"Offenbach will make much greater use of free solar energy in future in order to achieve the goals of the city's climate protection program," says Lord Mayor Schwenke, who is also Chairman of the Supervisory Board of SOH. "We have great potential on our own unused roofs to generate electricity for our own consumption or for marketing, preferably together with EVO. This will also make us as a city less dependent on the development of electricity prices. I have entrusted Stadtwerke Offenbach Holding GmbH with the implementation because it has already had its own photovoltaic systems on its roofs for several years and has the relevant expertise. This also has the advantage that the added value is created regionally and stays with us," continued the Lord Mayor. The goal is now: "By 2027, 45 systems on the roofs of municipal properties are to harness the power of the sun as a climate-friendly and profitable source of energy, provided that the required material is available on the global market," says Mayor Schwenke. "So we are moving from talk to action and will achieve tangible progress with around ten systems per year."

"We are delighted to have been commissioned to take on this forward-looking task," says SOH Managing Director Peter Walther. "Producing electricity from renewable energies is a sensible addition to our previous efforts to significantly reduce emissions in the city. We will work closely with our experts in our subsidiaries GBM, OPG and GBO, who have already gained experience in such photovoltaic projects, to implement the project. We already operate nine systems in Offenbach. Our GBO sites in Jacques-Offenbach-Straße and the Stadtservice in Daimlerstraße, which has a significantly higher energy requirement, can be completely covered by the electricity from the systems there during the sunny summer months," says Walther. According to initial rough estimates, we could generate more than 5 million kilowatts of electricity with the targeted 45 systems. We are planning an annual investment volume of 1.3 million euros for this over the next four years."

The majority of the roofs are being assessed by an expert from GBM Service GmbH on behalf of SOH. A plan is now being drawn up for these areas to determine the order in which they can be fitted with solar modules. Provided the required photovoltaic modules are available, the plan is to install the first systems in 2024.

The electricity that then flows from the roofs of the municipal buildings, i.e. schools, daycare centers, gyms or administrative buildings, will primarily be consumed in the properties themselves. Energy produced on the roofs of the Stadtwerke subsidiary GBO Gemeinnützige Baugesellschaft mbH Offenbach will be fed into the local grid according to the current status of the project. In the future, the systems on GBO's roofs are to be used for a tenant electricity model, for which there are currently no mature regulations.

As a local energy supplier and reliable partner, EVO AG is involved in the project work and supports the photovoltaic offensive as a contribution to climate protection in Offenbach.