Belgian energy company Perpetum Energy has built a 40 MW solar carport at Pairi Daiza, a private zoo and botanical garden in Hainaut, Belgium. It said the total investment amounted to an investment of €40 million ($43 million).
Belgian energy company Perpetum Energy has built a 40 MW solar carport at Pairi Daiza, a private zoo and botanical garden in Brugelette, Hainaut, Belgium.
“The solar power plant we built in the Pairi Daiza car park is the largest photovoltaic carport – made of wood – in the world,” says Grégoire Dewandeleer, general manager of the company. pv magazine.
He added that Pairi Daiza, together with its partner Préfabois, was amenable to the use of 100% natural and renewable material to minimize the loss of raw materials and reduce gray energy consumption.
The carport, made of durable, class 4 Douglas fir, is constructed from tree trunks and rough wooden beams from the Ardennes. The materials are certified to Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC) standards, ensuring sustainable forest management.
Image: Perpetum
The project amounts to €40 million 200,000 square meters, with 51 inverters and 93,786 solar panels from the Chinese manufacturer Longi (265 Wp) for part of the plant and from Canadian Solar for another part.
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“To ensure the operation of the second phase of the photovoltaic shade house and cover the park’s significant electricity needs, we had to adapt the imposing main cabin, Dewandeleer said. “The wiring was strengthened, the current transformers (CT) were replaced with more powerful CTs and the dozens of circuit breaker cells were modified. A challenge completed in three days!”
The operation – financed by third-party investments by the Green4Power SA fund and owned by Perpetum and Socofe – makes Pairi Daiza a major supplier of green energy. The zoo consumes some of its PV electricity and exports excess power to the grid, but this surplus is expected to decrease as electric vehicle charging stations are installed beneath the shade houses.
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