International projects

With these funds, the non-profit association in South Africa can include more kindergartens and schools in the urgently needed "school lunch" project and further expand its sustainable development aid regionally.
"We have seen what we can create with and for the local people," explains Edith Brasche from FEED. "Our goal is to go beyond self-sufficiency to create new jobs and income for local people in agriculture and vegetable and medicinal herb cultivation by offering them the opportunity to grow under the SUNfarming Food & Energy facilities free of charge after the trainings. When selling the surplus of vegetables and medicinal herbs, we support the former trainees so that they can build up a successful small business in the long run. The sponsoring of AURUBIS AG will bring us a big step forward and promote a sustainable support of the trainees over three years", says Edith Brasche.

In addition to local projects in the countries where it operates, Aurubis has also been involved at an international level since 2019. After projects in Peru and Chile, Aurubis has also been supporting the non-profit association F.E.E.D. in South Africa, more precisely in the Potchefstroom region, for the first time since 2021.
Stefanie Klein, Social Engagement Aurubis AG, explains why: "We are pleased to be able to support F.E.E.D., a project that combats malnutrition, provides training in sustainable, ecological food cultivation and promotes the use of resource-saving technologies. The important approach of helping people to help themselves is in the foreground here, because targeted knowledge transfer enables the people in the project to participate in society - and ultimately it contributes to the further development of an entire region. For these reasons, this holistic project is an excellent fit for us and our focus areas."

FEED has so far been able to distribute 7.57 million servings of "Vitality Porridge" to 24,000 school and kindergarten children and 100,000 family members as part of its cooperation with SUNfarming in DEG's COVID-19 Response Programme in 2021. More than 1,000 township residents, many of them women, were trained in sustainable agriculture in the agri trainings and new community or school gardens were planted every week, which are now used to feed the population and the children in the schools and kindergartens in the long term.
You can find out more about FEED at www.feed-ev.de.

PRESS RELEASE: Erkner/Heinsberg, 10.02.2022. SUNfarming Group AG is one of Germany's leading project developers and investors in the field of solar energy and is also a pioneer in the development and operation of agri-photovoltaic systems. This type of plant enables the dual use of photovoltaics and agriculture through elevated glass-glass solar modules. This enables the farmer to cushion the effects of climate change, increase crop yields through higher-value crops and at the same time produce electricity himself. For many years, SUNfarming Group AG has been cooperating with the Institute for Plant Sciences at the Jülich Research Centre, both at the Jülich site and abroad, to research the development of different types of plants under the modules. In addition, the resulting contribution to the additional water supply of plants and soils is being investigated in order to be able to evaluate the influence gained from these innovative systems for plant production in climate change.

In a cooperative project between the Jülich Research Centre and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), SUNfarming was commissioned in 2021 to develop two new types of system and implement them at the newly developing Morschenich-Alt development site near Jülich. The first is a further development of the so-called SUNfarming Food & Energy System type with a higher clearance height of over 2.50 m and greater post spacing, which also enables the use of larger agricultural machines. The other is a so-called SUNfarming Food & Energy Tracking System as a special design with modules that track the position of the sun to increase yields and a total height of more than 6 m and a clearance height of 4 m. The latter is used to research different shading systems. The latter is used to research different shading scenarios for the plants as well as more efficient rainwater management to make crop cultivation more climate-sensitive.

After a development period of just under 9 months, the SUNfarming Group, known for its technical development services, was able to install the entire facility in Morschenich-Alt at the end of 2021. From completion in February 2022, the facilities will not only provide the framework for comprehensive research work on all aspects of plant cultivation in agri-solar systems, but will also produce approx. 300,000 kWh of solar energy per year, which, among other things, will supply the research site with sustainably generated energy and thus avoid the emission of over 140 t of greenhouse gas per year. SUNfarming Group AG has also founded SUNfarming West GmbH at the Heinsberg site in 2021 to expand its business activities in North Rhine-Westphalia and the neighbouring Benelux countries.

"We have already been working successfully with the Jülich Research Centre for many years, especially in the field of agri-photovoltaic systems," explains David Morr, Head of Department for Food & Energy Projects at SUNfarming. "In this cooperation project between the plant scientists from the Jülich Research Centre and Fraunhofer ISE, we were able to contribute our high level of technical development expertise in the agri-solar sector, which we have acquired over many years in our own research and innovation park at the Rathenow site in Brandenburg. Based on the requirements of our clients, we were thus able to construct two food & energy plant types for Morschenich-Alt, which practically demonstrate new solutions for multiple land use, with regard to the production of solar energy as well as the cultivation possibilities for berry fruits, medicinal, oil and fibre plants under changing climatic conditions," says David Morr.

Only about 20 km away from Morschenich-Alt, the first 5 megawatt SUNfarming eco-solar plant is currently under construction on a former gravel pit in Heinsberg. This plant is also the first of its kind in the Rhineland and is expected to be connected to the grid in April 2022. Further projects in the Heinsberg district are already being planned.

Contact:
SUNfarming West GmbH
Am Vossenweg 2
52525 Heinsberg
Deutschland

Edith Brasche
Mobil: +49 152 536 169 93
e.brasche@sunfarming.de

Igor Hensing
Mobil: +49 172 214 3827
Tel.: +49 (0) 2452 / 988 786
i.hensing@sunfarming.de

BioökonomieREVIER

Fraunhofer

FEED President Peter Schrum and Vice President Edith Brasche visited FEED projects in the Potchefstroom region in November and met other new partners to expand sustainable development aid in the Potchefstroom region and beyond.For more information, visit FEED.

SUNfarming is acquiring further ready-to-build photovoltaic projects with secured tariffs in December 2021 - the largest portfolio of 37 MWp consists of 39 individual projects that secured a Contract for Difference (CfD) in the auction in June 2021. The two other acquisitions with 16 MW and 7 MW are also solar projects that received a 15-year CfD.
SUNfarming has already been able to secure the construction phase financing for all projects in order to ensure that the projects can be implemented in a timely manner. In some cases, SUNfarming was able to draw on its existing interim financing line of EUR 35 million or expand the financing framework with existing partners. For the largest acquisition, SUNfarming used the credit of a new partner. This challenging transaction was completed in less than 6 weeks.
"Thanks to a good and professional cooperation with our advisors, we were able to acquire three portfolios from different sellers in December 2021 alone, while securing financing from three different capital providers. We would like to thank our existing and also new financing partners for their trust and look forward to realising the projects in 2022," Anna Pilarczyk-Naprawski, Managing Director Poland of SUNfarming Group, is pleased to announce.
"2021 was one of the most successful years in our company's history. Especially our Polish business is booming. We entered the market about 6 years ago and are happy to see that the hard work of the last years is bearing fruit. With the latest acquisitions, our portfolio has grown to almost 145 MWp and the target of 200 MWp by 2023 is now within reach," continues Martin Tauschke, Managing Director and co-partner of the SUNfarming Group.

SUNfarming press release published in PV Magazin (German)

With the two concepts "Eco-Solar" and "Agri-Solar", SUNfarming has set the course for project planning for solar parks on former agricultural land in 2021. "With our dual-use concept for open-space plants, we can significantly expand the biodiversity of the land in addition to producing green electricity," says SUNfarming Group CEO Thies Schrum.

The SUNfarming Eco- and Agri-Solar Systems have clear unique selling points due to bifacial glass-glass modules, an elevated substructure and a specifically developed rainwater distribution system. The dual-use concepts offered have been refined for years in some cases with sheep, bee and poultry farming (eco-solar) as well as vegetable and medicinal herb cultivation (agri-solar). "We have further developed our Food&Energy system from abroad over the years and adapted it to the German market and have thus not only created a space under the modules, but also very concrete concepts whose feasibility we have already proven. This is a huge advantage," continues Thies Schrum, CEO of the SUNfarming Group.

SUNfarming already has several hundred hectares of eco- and agri-solar plants in approval procedures in Germany and plans to roll out the concept further. "We want to make a decisive contribution to the energy transition with this and see ourselves very well positioned to do so," concludes Schrum.

„Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let us all come back together in 2022 and keep on changing people´s lives.“ wishes Melanie Jooste, Team Leader SUNfarming South Africa.
The whole SUNfarming team agrees with this wish.