What we have been able to do so far:
SUNfarming, together with many volunteers, including the Potsdam Pirschheide Canoe Club, supported a transport of aid to the Ukrainian border in Poland at the weekend. Clothing, food, baby clothes, hygiene articles, 250 first aid kits and other medicines were brought directly to the Ukrainian border for the refugees. A total of 25 cars, vans and trucks took part in this tour. On the way back, 18 Ukrainian refugees were taken to Potsdam and distributed to private accommodation on Sunday evening. Another transport is planned for the coming weekend, again bringing Ukrainian refugees to the Berlin region.

Another joint fundraising campaign by SUNfarming and our solar business partners from Fürstenwalde brought several organised trucks with donations as far as eastern Poland. From there, a former Ukrainian SUNfarming employee received the donations and distributed them in Ukraine.
The trucks were loaded with food donations (long-life milk, oatmeal, biscuits, canned food, nappies) and pharmacy donations (bandages, medicines). SUNfarming staff donated warm blankets, torches, tools and clothes, among other things.

A report by Benjamin Meise, solar business partner from Fürstenwalde and co-organiser.
The aid convoys from last week have returned safely.
Some of the donations from Fürstenwalde and from the municipalities of the Odervorland district were brought to the vicinity of Warsaw (Nowy Dwor mazowiecki) at the weekend and then from there directly to Mlyniv (Ukraine) today.
Our coach, which also travelled to Nowy Dwor together with the fire brigade vehicles of the Amt Odervorland, transported 28 Ukrainian women and children from the refugee collection centre in Warsaw, where more than 1,000 refugees were already waiting, to the ZABH Eisenhüttenstadt. From there they are distributed further.
At the Ukrainian border there are very long traffic jams with people who want to get to safety and therefore leave the country. Some of them have not been able to sleep for three nights. They are mainly women and children. Many people no longer make it to the border because the escape routes have been destroyed and they are surrounded in the cities.
From Fürstenwalde, an additional 6 fully loaded transporters drove out to Lublin. On the way back, after a short break, they took 14 women and children from different places in the border region to Germany. On the way, they encountered military convoys. Some of the petrol stations were sold out.
The drivers and second drivers were on the road for up to 24 hours and longer without a break, each covering more than 1,500 km. One team of drivers spent the night at the border at -2 degrees to wait for two women and three children with whom they had spontaneously arranged to meet via private messenger services. The family is from Kharkiv and was bombed out. They had been on the run since Thursday and were now overjoyed to be safe.

The Ministry of Economics, Labour and Energy and the Berlin-Brandenburg regional group of the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU) awarded the Heinersdorf project a special prize at the Energy Efficiency Award 2021 ceremony.
Heiner Kamper, project manager of SUNfarming: "The jury emphasised the high educational value for the children. Furthermore, the jury praised the project as a positive example of citizen participation in the energy transition.
We congratulate Bürgerenergie Oder-Spree on this award and thank them for their trust in SUNfarming."

The plant size is 47.6 KWp, the produced output is 45,000 KWh and the self-consumption for school and kindergarden is 50%. The communities bear no risk, the roofs are leased from the capital contributions of the cooperative members and supply the community with cheap, renewable energy via the SUNfarming PV system. The citizens' cooperative is planning to lease further roofs and to have them realised.

The yield:

PV generator energy (AC grid) 11,092 kWh
Direct self-consumption 3.325 kWh
Battery charging 2.320 kWh
Grid feed-in 5,446 kWh
Own consumption share 50.8 %
Avoided CO₂ emissions 5,279 kg/year

1. Biofertilizer from fermentation residues:
Development of a solar-powered process to process digestate from biogas plants and produce liquid biofertilizer

2. PV cooling mat:
Solar power generation by cooling PV modules using innovative cooling mats and combined use of heat potential (PV cooling mat)

3. Artemisia annua cultivation:
Sustainable cultivation for ecological and economical cultivation of Artemisia Annua in partially shaded agri-solar systems

4. Aquaponics in PV plants:
Development of an energy sustainable and resource efficient aquaculture cycle system under the partially shaded areas of Agri-Solar plants

5. Agro-robotics:
Development of an autonomous agro-robot for efficient Artemisia cultivation in Agri-Solar facilities

The total complex consisting of a skylight dome hall, 2 shed roof halls, 2 x light weight halls, 2 Food & Energy facilities and a social building has 730 kWp of installed PV capacity with an energy production of 690 MWh per year.

Thies Schrum will be responsible for expanding the digitalization of processes and will be heavily involved in the structuring of the sales teams. As a business economist, Thies Schrum has been working at a leading international strategy consultancy since 2017, most recently as a project manager, supporting national and international clients in the areas of strategy development and due diligence as part of M&A projects.

"Through his consulting work, Thies brings experience from extensive strategy and transformation projects with international medium-sized companies and corporations. This will help us enormously to further structure and advance our chosen growth course. We are very pleased that Thies is now on board," says Martin Tauschke.

"I am very happy to join our family business and to help shaping the exciting path we have taken. I look forward to working with the team and our partners," says Thies Schrum, son of Peter Schrum.

The funds received are intended for additional project development and pre-financing exclusively for German solar projects.

Martin Tauschke, CEO of SUNfarming GmbH: “We are very happy about the trust that investors have in us. Especially in view of the current capital market environment, we are extremely satisfied with the fact that we were able to already successfully place around 75% of the total volume. This result speaks very clearly for our company, our strategy and the undisputed growth market of renewable energies. "
Despite the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, SUNfarming expects 2020 to be a successful year with around 50 MWp of completed projects in Germany and abroad.
For the first half of 2021, the project pipeline already comprises more than 30 MW.

More information can be found here (in German)

(Photo, from left to right: Karsten Balzer, SUNfarming authorized signatory, Martin Tauschke, CEO of SUNfarming GmbH)