As many buildings as possible owned by the city should be equipped with a photovoltaic system as quickly as possible. The Offenbach city council gave this order to the magistrate last year. In order to be able to quickly implement this major project, Mayor Felix Schwenke (SPD) commissioned Stadtwerke Holding to develop an appropriate structure.
This has now been created and the project should now be implemented quickly, as Schwenke announced on Wednesday in Offenbach’s town hall. The municipal utilities would have been happy to take on this future-oriented task, said Peter Walther, managing director of Stadtwerke Holding. His team is now expected to implement around ten systems a year on existing schools, administration buildings, workshops and the like. The number of new school buildings and extensions planned in Offenbach should also be equipped with a photovoltaic system from the start – wherever possible.
Climate protection goals in view
There should be 45 systems by the end of 2027. The investment volume is currently estimated at around 5.2 million euros. Last but not least, all of this is subject to the proviso that the necessary components such as panels, inverters and storage devices can also be obtained on the global market, as it was said on Wednesday. Walther assumes that another position is needed to organize the projects in practice. He expects that the city will be able to rely on appropriate funding from the federal and state governments for its photovoltaic plans – as in many other cases.
The installation itself will not be carried out by technicians from Stadtwerke Offenbach, but rather by companies that have successfully taken part in a planned tender. Walther explained that an attempt will be made to commit companies to the order on the basis of a framework agreement in order to obtain cheaper prices for a larger purchase quantity. The company commissioned must also be able to ensure that it can procure suitable panels if a replacement becomes necessary, the Stadtwerke Holding boss continued.
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In the project, the municipal utilities also rely on their subsidiaries, non-profit building company Offenbach (GBO), building management service company and the OPG Offenbacher project development company. All three already have experience with photovoltaic projects. All in all, there are already nine facilities in Offenbach. According to Walther, for example, at the Jacques-Offenbach-Strasse and Daimlerstrasse locations, it is already possible today to cover the energy requirements in the “sunny summer months” completely using electricity from the respective installed photovoltaic systems. The energy supplier EVO AG, in which the city holds shares, is also on board.
Offenbach sees the ambitious expansion of solar power generation overall as an important step towards achieving the goals of the city’s climate protection program. With the help of the planned photovoltaic systems, the municipal utility’s growing electric vehicle fleet, as well as the bus fleet, half of which now consists of electric buses, will also be supplied with their own green electricity.
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