Roger Miesen, CEO of RWE Generation and County Chair for the Netherlands, said: “With Solar Park Amer, we demonstrate that it is possible to turn conventional asset sites into landmark projects that promote innovative solutions for a sustainable electricity system. The Netherlands are one of RWE’s strategic core markets, and we continue to contribute to the growth of renewable energy, as well as to CO2 free, flexible capacity in the country.”

The solar panels float on a lake whose waters were once used as cooling water. The lake has not been used for that purpose for many decades, has no direct connection with the nearby Amer river, and is therefore ideally suited for floating panels. To prevent the panels from drifting away in strong winds and colliding with the surrounding dike, they are anchored at 104 points to 52 concrete blocks sunk onto the bottom of the lake. These blocks weight 4.6 t each. A total of 25 km of cable has been used to connect the panels electrically to the shore. The produced electricity is fed into the power station’s grid.

Solar Park Amer

In 2018, RWE realised the first phase of Solar Park Amer, installing over 2000 PV panels with 0.5 MWp on the roof of its power plant. In 2021, RWE further increased the capacity with ground-mounted PV installations. The 5760 total panels have been in operation since last summer. With the commissioning of the floating project, the total capacity of Solar Park Amer has increased from 0.5 to 9 MWp. This is enough power to supply 2300 average Dutch households.

Sustainable growth in the Netherlands

Besides its activities in solar, RWE has a well-established onshore wind business in the Netherlands. The company currently operates onshore wind farms with a total capacity of more than 330 MW (RWE’s pro rata share) in the country. In the last two years, four new onshore wind farms with more than 115 MW capacity have come online or are now in the final stages of commissioning.