F&S Solar Develops UK Project And Opens UK Branch
As a location for solar development Germany's success also means it has lost part of its attractiveness as financial returns are not as high. Due to this most successful solar companies are entering the international market beyond their domestic beginnings. Georg Schmiedel, CEO of "F&S solar" with its headquarters in Euskirchen, near Cologne, realized this local development at an early stage and began planning for growth that continues with new developments.
"It was predictable that the high feed-in tariff for solar current could not be implemented on a longterm basis", Schmiedel says.
For this reason he and his CEO companions Jörg Fruehauf and Uwe Czypiorski began looking for attractive markets to begin the international development of the company.
In addition to 25 projects which are being developed in the Netherlands, the solar developer from North Rhine-Westfalia is now building its first solar installation in the UK at Caddington, in Bedfordshire.
"We just built up the English market within only six months " says Schmiedel whose company now has established a further branch "F&S solar UK" in London. "International clients still trust in German technicians."
"The remuneration system in England is a bit more complicated, but the fact is that there is a feed-in tariff" reports Martin Wagner, Head of International Project Management at F&S solar.
For PV installations of up to five megawatts one currently gets a feed-in tariff of 6.38 cents plus a Power Purchase Agreement, which means that one could count on 13 to 14 cents per kilowatt-hour. The solar farm in Caddington will have a performance of 4.8 megawatts. This means that 13,000 solar panels will be mounted on a surface of approximately 60 hectares. 1,275 households can be supplied with clean power. At the same time more than 3,000 tons of carbon dioxide can be saved in comparison to the traditional power generation from coal, thus protecting the environment and the climate. The total investment for this PV installation amounts to 6.7 Million euros.
"The financing is already secured" says Martin Wagner. "The demand from investors is tremendous and can hardly be satisfied at the moment."
Despite the fact that the energy turnaround has been taken its positive dynamism in Germany, Martin Wagner is sure that the real worldwide solar boom is yet to come.
"Some sunny countries still burn crude oil to produce electricity, without using the heat which is generated, he said. "Therefore, the construction of solar parks in these countries would be very lucrative and would result in direct earnings."
"Ddiesel engines currently produce electric energy of 40 gigawatts worldwide. Connecting it with solar energy could massively reduce energy costs" says Uwe Czypiorski.
Small island countries like Indonesia with about 11,000 small islands, for example are ideally suited for a decentralized energy production.
Solar energy in Germany is still far from being a dead market and the company maintains it presence. Georg Schmiedel is convinced that solar energy will become unbeatable "no later than the costs for solar energy will have reached the lower prices for conventional coal- or gas power "“ which will definitely happen ".
Erik Bakker (left), CEO of F&S solar UK, and Uwe Czypiorski (right), CTO of F&S sola", on the solar park location in Caddington.