At VolkerWessels company De Mors Houtbouw in Rijssen, a new solar roof of 1,489 panels was completed this week. As a result, the wood building factory generates a significant portion of its electricity consumption itself. In addition to this location in Rijssen, VolkerWessels will realize solar roofs on another nine of its own (Matex) office buildings and production locations in the coming months. In total, over 4,300 panels will be added, with a total capacity of 1,728 kWp and an expected output of 1,200 MWh per year. The investment in solar energy is an important step for VolkerWessels towards its climate ambition 'Emission-free2030'.
Part of the Emission-free2030 program is to limit building-related energy consumption as much as possible and to generate sustainable energy wherever possible. After an analysis of the real estate owned (directly or indirectly) by VolkerWessels itself, ten locations were selected. In addition to the site in Rijssen, these include office buildings and production sites in Oosterhout (VWML), Zwijndrecht (KWS), Oudenbosch (Van Agtmaal), Nieuwegein (VolkerWessels Vastgoed), Tilburg (Gebr. Van Kessel), Dordrecht (VWML), Papendrecht (Wilchem), Groningen (Visser & Smit Bouw) and Amsterdam (KWS). A solar roof in Vroomshoop (De Groot Vroomshoop) has already been completed in the summer of 2023. Additional locations are expected to follow later this year.
The roofs of the selected locations were found to be suitable both in terms of sun position and construction and have sufficient potential to deploy the solar power generated locally. In order to make maximum use of the generated sustainable energy, additional charging stations have also been installed at a number of locations to charge the rapidly growing electric vehicle fleet. By means of “active load balancing,” maximum utilization of the generated solar energy is continuously controlled. At locations that are experiencing grid congestion and where it is not yet possible to supply energy back to the grid operator, the generation is curtailed at peak times. VolkerWessels purchases 100% green electricity anyway, in addition to the electricity that it generates itself sustainably.
The panels will be installed by GroenLeven, a partner with which VolkerWessels also cooperates in other sustainable energy projects. The structural study was carried out by VolkerWessels company Aveco de Bondt and the preparation of the building installations for solar power and the installation of charging stations was carried out at most locations by VolkerWessels company Homij.