RENEWABLES More than 180km of LAPP Olflex solar cable was was used in the establishment of Austria’s largest solar power plant at SchonkirchenReyersdorf near Vienna. The 11.5MW facility covers an area of 13.3-hectares - equivalent to 18 football pitches or six MCGs.
LAPP signposts the future of photovoltaics with 11.5MW green energy in Austria Anyone who doubts that solar power is about to make a major contribution to the planet’s clean-green energy output might pause to consider some statistics provided by LAPP Australia about one of the LAPP Group’s recent eco-friendly projects. The new system, which began operation in Schonkirchen-Reyersdorf near Vienna, Austria late last year combines 34,600 solar modules to generate 11.5 megawatts, or almost 11 gigawatt-hours of electrical energy a year. The facility produces enough energy to satisfy the consumption of 3,400 households, saving some 8,000 tons of CO2(e) emiisions annually. The new solar facility – Austria’s largest – is still being developed to provide even greater capacity on a site covering 13.3 hectares, which is equivalent to 18 football fields, or six times the playing surface of the largest sporting stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Melbourne Cricket Ground. LAPP Australia General Manager, Simon Pullinger, says the project – for which the global parent company supplied 180km of its Olflex® solar cables for the DC section of the photo voltaic modules alone – also absorbed a wide range of other products available in Australia to withstand the rigours of outdoor operations at solar and wind farms and clean-green water plants. The global LAPP organisation – with 4,650 employees and turnover well exceeding a billion Euros ($A1.62 billion) – established 36
Waste + Water Management Australia | June/July 2021
LAPP Australia in 2018 to serve futurefocussed industries Down Under. These include energy, rail, mobility organisations, manufacturing and plant engineering (including automation, robotics and process engineering systems), electrical engineering systems and energy systems, including wind and solar green energy; machine building and machine tools; food and beverage; automotive, intelligent buildings and infrastructure; and resources industry, including mining and oil and gas process engineering. Mr Pullinger says the family-owned LAPP company prides itself on its far-sighted ethos of outstanding innovation, quality, range and service, which has won it many customers across Australia, to the point that LAPP Australia now has more than 20,000 products available online. Live realtime stock checking on both the local and German HQ warehouses gives customers greater access to products and rapid lead times for better planning of future-focussed automation initiatives, including those taking place locally as a result of Industry 4.0 digital integration and in response to global major trends such as clean, green energy and water. Service and precise on-time delivery capabilities were a major factor in the global company winning the latest solar energy contracts in Austria, where the market for solar for photovoltaics is growing by 50 per
cent every year, says Mr Pullinger. LAPP Australia has equipped itself to cater for rapid expansion of this field in Australia, given our abundant natural energy resources and need to achieve world’s best standards of sustainability and environmental protection vital to industry’s future.
ABOUT LAPP Headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, LAPP is a leading supplier of integrated solutions and branded products in the field of cable and connection technology. The company’s portfolio includes standard and highly flexible cables, industrial connectors and cable entry systems, customized system solutions, automation technology and robotics solutions for the intelligent factory of the future, as well as technical accessories. LAPP’s core market is in the industrial machinery and plant engineering sector. Other key markets are in the food industry as well as the energy and the mobility sector. LAPP has remained in continuous family ownership since it was founded in 1959. In the 2018/19 business year, it generated consolidated revenue of 1,222 million euros. LAPP currently employs approximately 4,650 people across the world, has 18 production sites and around 44 sales companies.
ABOUT LAPP AUSTRALIA LAPP Australia offers a one-stop shop for highly integrated, efficient and reliable systems which comply with the leading Australian, European and American compliance and quality standards. In addition to major LAPP brands of product – such as OLFLEX®, UNITRONIC®, HITRONIC®, SKINTOP®, SILVIN®, EPIC, FLEXIMARK®, and ETHERLINE® – LAPP Australia focuses strongly on world-class total solutions incorporating highly compatible components from the one source. For Information visit: www.lappaustralia.com.au