SolarWorld and Montpellier Airport jointly inaugurated the completion of a 4.5MW solar power system installed at the airport in the southern French city. The PV system, which consists over 16,000 PV modules and was installed on carports over 1,800 parking spaces, marks the larges solar installation at an airport in France.

The project was a challenging one because it was impossible to use standard modules – for the safety of the air traffic, the solar modules to be used have to be completed free of any reflection so that pilots will have no worries about being dazzled on their flights. SolarWorld supplied SW Sunmodule plus 280 mono for the project as the product was produced from the entire lamination process in a complex process and equipped with thicker, non-reflective glass.

The 4.5MW PV project is expected to generate about 6.2MWh of clean electricity annually to power the airport.

A consortium comprising the companies Energies du Sud, La Compagnie du Vent (ENGIE Group), the Caisse des Dépôts and the airport Montpellier Méditerranée was established especially for the ambitious ecological project. The French subsidiary SolarWorld France S.A.S. headquartered in Grenoble was charged with the project implementation.

"With this project, we have shown that SolarWorld is nevertheless able to respond flexibly to specific requirements and to adapt production processes accordingly," explains Dr. Ing. E. h. Frank Asbeck, CEO of SolarWorld.