Construction work starts on Austria's largest floating solar project

A unit of German renewables company BayWa r.e. AG and Austrian power producer EVN AG (VIE:EVN) are building a 24.5-MWp floating solar photovoltaic (PV) farm on an artificial lake in northeast Austria.

The facility will be set up on an area of 14 hectares (34.59 acres) on ponds in former sand and gravel pits near the town of Grafenwoerth, Lower Austria, and will be Austria's largest floating solar system, BayWa r.e. said on Thursday.

Once connected to the grid in the spring of 2023, the Grafenwoerth solar park is expected to supply about 7,500 local households with clean electricity.

EVN is partnering with BayWa r.e.'s local subsidiary ECOwind Handels - & Wartungs- GmbH on the project.

BayWa r.e. stressed that floating solar systems could be a game changer alongside all the other solar applications in Austria which has mountainous topography and the competition for land use is fierce.

This is not the only floating PV project that BayWa r.e. is working on. The company has such projects in Sellingen, Uivermeertjes and Bomhofsplas in the Netherlands.

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