With an installed capacity of 76 megawatts (MWp), the Agri-PV farm Tützpatz is currently the largest ground-mounted solar project in Germany, combining power generation with arable farming and animal husbandry on a total area of 93 hectares.
Vattenfall secures the profitability of the project through a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA). With Power and Air Condition Solution Management GmbH (PASM), a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG, Vattenfall has found a partner for this project, which will take over the production of the system completely for a decade. In mathematical terms, it covers the annual demand of around 4,600 mobile phone sites.
On the occasion of the opening, Claus Wattendrup, Head of the Solar & Batteries Division at Vattenfall, told The Voice I=of Renewables: “Tützpatz is the first Agri-PV project that we are implementing on this scale. The entire team has done real pioneering work and has led the project to success with a lot of personal commitment despite some hurdles. I would like to thank all those involved who can be proud of their achievements. With Tützpatz, we are showing that agriculture and fossil-free power generation are not in competition with each other, but can complement each other perfectly.”
Bernd Schulte-Sprenger, Managing Director of PASM, commented on the decision to sign the long-term power supply contract with Vattenfall: “As a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG, PASM bears central responsibility for the reliable energy supply of the telecommunications infrastructure. The electricity supply contract with the Tützpatz solar park combines ecological responsibility with clear economic rationality. It is a future-proof model that ensures cost stability for energy, increases space efficiency and makes a significant contribution to achieving climate neutrality in the Deutsche Telekom AG Group’s own operations.”
Agriculture and animal husbandry
The Agri-PV Solar Park Tützpatz consists of three sub-areas, on which both animal husbandry and arable farming will take place in the future. In the future, chickens will be kept in mobile barns on designated areas. A total of six mobile chicken coops, each with up to 2,500 animals, are being planned.
On the sub-areas Tützpatz 2 and Tützpatz 3, arable farming with different crop rotations is to be carried out in the future. Here, so-called tracker systems were erected as a substructure for the solar modules. In addition, the distances between the rows of modules are larger. With tilted modules, the arable land can then be driven on with agricultural machinery and can thus be worked.
The innovative technology of Agri-PV can make an important contribution to keeping valuable agricultural land in production and at the same time making it usable for electricity generation from solar energy. In addition to Tützpatz, Vattenfall plans to implement further Agri-PV parks.
