Largest Photovoltaic Solar Energy Plant on the Maldives - SolarStar

A new 294 kilowatt photovoltaic solar  power plant has been supplying power to hospitals and schools on six islands since last week.

"As solar radiation here is about 70 percent higher than in Germany, photovoltaics is the central component of the energy turnaround on the Maldives", says Stefan Riel, co-founder of Wirsol Solar AG. It is the first German company which has installed solar systems in the sunny paradise with an output of 652 kW. The global project developer from Baden-Württemberg wants to build at least 20 MW more over the next few years.The solar plants installed by Wirsol Solar AG are already producing about 1.1 million kilowatt hours of power a year now. Up to 316,000 litres of diesel are saved and roughly 770 tons of carbon dioxide are prevented with these photovoltaic installations alone in the same period. "Solar plants are an economical means for replacing conventional energy production with diesel fuel here", explains Dr. Thomas Walter, head of Wirsol Asia Pacific (APAC).

Wirsol, who operates the photovoltaic plants  on its own account, has formed a joint venture with Renewable Energy Maldives (REM). The climate-neutral power produced in this way is sold on to the state energy supplier STELCO.

"Further savings of up to 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide in total should be achieved with the new installations of solar plants to the tune of 20 MW", says the head of the joint venture, Dr. Ibrahim Nashid.