Screenshot from the video presentation of the Baumgarten Solar project

A Swiss consortium, comprising the timber company W. Rüegg AG, PV consultancy Zenna AG, and solar installer Helion Energy AG, has built a ground-mounted vertical PV-plus-storage plant in Kaltbrunn, St. Gallen, Switzerland. The plant, covering an area of around 6,000 m2, has an installed PV capacity of 366 kW and a battery storage capacity of 2.5 MW/3 MWh. The system uses screw foundations from K2, inverters from SMA Solar Technology, and batteries from Catl Enerone.

The land on which the plant is built belongs to W. Rüegg, which plans to use the site for business expansion in the future. However, due to long planning phases, the company decided to use the land for the PV plant as an intermediate use. The plant is fully demountable, allowing the land to be repurposed for other uses, such as agriculture, in the future.

The stored energy from the plant is currently sold on the regulated market in Switzerland through CKW, a producer and distributor part of the Axpo Group. However, once W. Rüegg's expansion project is completed on the adjacent site, the energy will be used to supply the company itself.

The developers have emphasized the importance of visually appealing construction and optimal integration into the existing industrial environment. To this end, the height of the PV system was kept as low as possible, and anti-glare measures were taken to avoid unnecessary glare. The entire system is surrounded by a visually integrated fence.