At the location of the Garzweiler open-cast lignite mine, RWE is operating an innovative utility-scale photovoltaic plant with an integrated storage system. At peak output, the solar modules are designed to provide 19.4 megawatts of electricity.

The combination of solar panels and battery storage units, functioning as a buffer between generation and grid, is not the only innovative element: there is also its special location – about two kilometres long, it is directly below the “Königshovener Höhe” wind farm operated by RWE and the town of Bedburg, and when it reaches the end of its useful life the recultivation process will see it covered with fertile soil to enable new farmland and fields to take shape.

RWE was awarded the “PV & Storage Garzweiler” project in the innovation tender by the German Federal Network Agency in 2021. Construction work began in the following year, in 2022. The plant is generating and storing electricity since summer 2023.

Status: In operation