Photon Energy Connects 7.5 MWp Solar PV Power Plant to Grid in Romania
Global solar solutions provider PhotonEnergy NV has signed new contracts for operations and maintenanceof solar PV power plants in the Czech Republic. With the newcontracts worth 8.3 MWp, Photon Energy has exceeded the 100 MWpmilestone in the Czech Republic and is nearing 200 MWp for O&Mservices worldwide. This year alone the company’s customer basegrew by 45 MWp. Photon Energy’s know-how in the service of centralPV inverters – in this case Siemens – has again played a centralrole.
“With these new contracts we havereason to believe that we are currently the largest independentO&M provider in the still very heterogeneous Czech PVmarket”, says CEO Georg Hotar. “Exceeding100 MWp in the Czech Republic is of course a big moment for us andwe hope to expand further, both here and in other markets”, headded. In total Photon Energy now services more than 194 MWp ofsolar PV plants worldwide.
Operations and Maintenance (O&M) ofsolar power plants includes aspects and services such as remoteproduction monitoring, technical maintenance, repairs but alsoadministrative services. “O&M contracts are very attractivegiven the long lifespan of solar power plants. Owners of PV powerplants know that their projects are taken care of and for us theyconstitute long-term recurring revenues”, Hotar explains.
„The Czech market is still veryfragmented and has plenty of opportunity for us to grow muchfurther”, comments Hotar. “We believe this also sends amessage to potential investors, who are considering investing inour bonds, that we are an established player on the local PVmarket”. Photon Energy is currently offering an innovativecorporate bond in the Czech Republic, with an annual 6% interestand monthly coupon payments, aimed at retailand institutional investors. The bond has a nominal value of 30,000CZK and after the end of the subscription period on 11 December itis intended to be traded on the Prague Stock Exchange and the RMSystem.
Of the new power plants under contract, 7.3MWp run on Siemens central inverters and will be serviced by thecompany’s subsidiary Photon Energy Cardio, which specialises onservicing central PV inverters. Photon Energy Cardio has theknowledge to service as well as refurbish central inverter parts aswell as access to spare parts.
Earlier this year Photon Energy took overthe O&M of 28.5 MWp for one of the leading Czech independentpower producers, Energy 21. Photon Energy Cardio also installed its“String Monitoring Unit” – a hardware solution for large-scale PVpower plants – at the largest Czech solar PV power plant owned bythe largest Czech energy utility ČEZ.
Jan Krcmar
T +420 773 032 182
E jan.krcmar@photonenergy.com