RWE has commissioned a 14-megawatt (MW) solar plant at the Hambach opencast mine in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the company said on Tuesday.
The 12-hectare facility near Niederzier features more than 22,000 solar modules and has the capacity to supply electricity to approximately 4,500 households annually.
Construction was completed in under five months, with artificial intelligence employed for the first time to monitor progress using drone imagery.
This latest project marks RWE’s third solar park at Hambach, where the company already operates two plants with a combined capacity of 47.2 MW, including one equipped with an 8 MW battery storage system.
Katja Wunschel, chief executive of RWE Renewables Europe & Australia, said: “Thanks to the tremendous dedication of our team, we were able to commission the new plant near Niederzier ahead of schedule. It is important to us to get the people in the region on board – for example by involving the neighbouring municipalities. Our collaboration with the Neuland Hambach organisation is a case in point.”
Local municipalities represented by Neuland Hambach GmbH have the option to take a stake in the new plant.
RWE now operates eight solar parks in the Rhenish region, four of which include battery storage, alongside nine onshore wind farms.
