Trade + industry

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.

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.

Martin Tauschke, CEO of SUNfarming GmbH: “We are proud that in 2020 we were once again able to demonstrate our earning power despite the effects of the pandemic. We are just as happy about the positive start into the 2021 financial year and the successful full placement of our listed debut bond. We will do everything in our power to live up to the trust of our investors and to establish ourselves as a reliable issuer on the capital market over the long term."

SUNfarming GmbH recorded a successful 2020 financial year based on preliminary figures. SUNfarming was able to increase earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by 29.4% from EUR 1.7 million to EUR 2.2 million. This corresponds to an improved EBITDA margin of 7.9% after 4.7% in the previous year. The annual surplus increased by 87.5% from EUR 0.8 million to EUR 1.5 million. The positive development is also reflected in the equity ratio, which rose from 24.7% to 34.9%.

For the 2021 financial year, SUNfarming expects to improve both sales and earnings. In the 1st quarter, projects with an installed capacity of approx. 5 MWp and in Poland of approx. 3.9 MWp were successfully implemented. In Germany there were seven roof-top projects with a total output of 3.5 MWp and two ground-mounted systems with an output of 750 kWp each.

For the rest of the year there are currently around 27.3 MWp of new projects being planned and implemented. More than 60% of these consist of free-field PV projects that are subject to tendering with a capacity of over 750 kWp, around 20% consist of classic EEG-compensated free-field systems with an output of up to 750 kWp and around 20% roof systems with a total output of over 100 kWp. In addition to the new projects, around 29 MWp of project expansions are being implemented, of which the first two projects will be completed in the second quarter. In addition, several major projects of 20 MWp and more are in development for 2022.

Gustav Radloff is not only an excellent CEO, but also a top kayaker at this year's marathon in South Africa. With this victory he qualified for the 2021 World Cup in Romania.
And as if that weren't enough, he took part in two more kayak marathons in the 45-50 and 35-50 age groups, where he came second and fourth.

The SUNfarming team warmly congratulates. We are very proud of him.

Corfu is one of the greenest islands in Greece due to its fertile vegetation. But there is also something going on in terms of sustainability. A team from SUNfarming GmbH was able to successfully commission two photovoltaic systems on the Greek island in April 2021. The atmosfair cooperation project was actively supported by the German tour operator ReNatour and hotel manager Aias Varagoulis and his team.

In the SF Food & Energy lounge at Villa KaliMeera, a water-saving drip hose system is being laid to irrigate tomatoes, cucumbers and other local plants, the fruits of which are available to hotel guests as a fresh snack to pick themselves.

The calculated annual energy yield is around 16,500 kWh, one third of which can be purchased directly and two thirds can be used indirectly via a net metering billing system.

The tour operator ReNatour from Nuremberg designs the trips offered as climate and resource neutral as possible and the CO2 emissions caused by the journey can also be neutralized by the guests in cooperation with atmosfair gGmbH. The non-profit climate protection organization with a focus on "travel" supports the implementation of projects with donations that effectively reduce the emission of climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions and promote the long-term retention of carbon dioxide - including this SUNfarming project in Corfu.

What the locations were still missing in order to become more climate-neutral is the electrical energy supply through renewable energies, according to Aias. Since the inadequate use of renewable energies in Greece makes it virtually impossible to purchase green electricity from the grid, the only alternative is to produce on-site solar energy with photovoltaic systems. Thanks to the cooperation between SUNfarming and atmosfair, this goal has now been achieved and two PV systems with a total capacity of 25 kWp have been installed, which from now on take over 100% of the electrical energy supply for the hotels.

With the help of the new Greek net metering system, the energy that is not directly consumed is fed into the public power grid, registered by the network operator and drawn back from the grid as an equivalent at a later point in time as required. In this way, the seasonal operation can mathematically fall back on year-round sustainably generated energy. With this concept, the public grid functions as a gigantic virtual energy storage system and has the advantage over stationary PV storage systems of unlimited storage capacity and duration as well as the avoidance of additional investments. The fee incurred per kilowatt hour removed is a few cents and is below the specific costs per kilowatt hour stored by market-leading lithium-ion storage systems.
In this way, the existing solar potential, which in Greece is up to 1500 kWh / kWp / a at up to 150% of the German level, can be used particularly effectively and sensibly.

With this concept, SUNfarming supports climate-neutral travel in sunny holiday regions and promotes a conscious approach to the environment in the tourism industry.

As a visitor, "EuroTier/EnergyDecentral digital" offers you an extensive technical programme and attractive opportunities for networking.

Visit us in our digital showroom on our company profile and make an appointment with us.
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e.hinojosa(at)sunfarming.de

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