Dillingen (Saar): The New Delhi, India based Wattkraft Industries Private Limited and Next2Sun Mounting Systems GmbH (abr: Next2Sun Mounting Systems) located at Dillingen/Saar, Germany, have concluded a cooperation agreement to jointly advance photovoltaic projects in India and South Africa. The Wattkraft Group is one of the leading distributors of photovoltaic components, but is also active worldwide in the development and integration of renewable energy projects. Wattkraft Group is active in the Project Planning, Development and Integration across the world and especially for its customers in India and South Africa. Wattkraft India – as part of the Wattkraft Group – is active in the project planning and integration of PV components for projects in India. Wattkraft Group, while in the business of Solar Power sector, is equally aware and concern to ensure sustainable development. Wattkraft is equally sensitive and responsive towards effort in minimising the land consumption while setting up the Solar PV projects so also the co-existance of both Solar PV installations and usual farm cultivation activities by complementing each others. Wattkraft Group has a Vision and Mission to achieve sustainable Solar PV development complementing agriculture activities across the world.
The Next2Sun Group has set itself the goal of offering solutions for the energy transition with a new plant concept. Next2Sun’s mission is to stabilise the generation of renewable energies, reduce land consumption in ground-mounted photovoltaics and open up new application possibilities for photovoltaics. Next2Sun Mounting Systems GmbH, part of the Next2Sun group of companies, is responsible for the worldwide distribution of the mounting system and offers a comprehensive service package to support external project developers and plant constructors. Next2Sun has developed a vertical bifacial agri-photovoltaic system that enables a simple and extremely space-saving installation of solar modules with minimal shading effects. Due to the very low overbuilding of the area, 90 % of it remains agriculturally usable. Initial studies show that, especially in dry years, improved water balance due to the shadow cast by the modules as well as the wind shadow can lead to significantly higher yields, which can be of great advantage especially in areas affected by extreme drought. In addition, the vertical bifacial Next2Sun photovoltaic systems, which are generally oriented east-west, produce electricity when it is needed most, namely in the morning and evening hours. This counter-cyclical generation profile often allows them to feed into grids that are already at capacity during the midday hours when conventional photovoltaic systems produce electricity.
The aim of the partnership between the two companies is to combine their respective strengths and, with Next2Sun’s technical expertise and Wattkraft India’s project planning & development experience and local presence, establish Next2Sun’s vertical bifacial AgriPV system in India and South Africa as an important contribution to the energy transition. “Agri-Photovoltaics is an important and necessary element for growth in India and South Africa. We are sure that with Next2Sun’s vertical bifacial Agri-PV system we have found a product that, thanks to its counter-cyclical generation profile, can accelerate growth and thus also the energy transition,” says Giovanni Migliore, CEO of Wattkraft.
Next2Sun CEO Sascha Krause-Tünker is also looking forward to the future cooperation: “We are pleased that we have found an experienced partner in Wattkraft for the development of the Indian and South African markets and are convinced that we can achieve a lot together with our system.”
Both companies are sure that many exciting projects will emerge from this cooperation and that together they can all make an important contribution to the energy transition.
