BCE, in partnership with energy supplier Enovos and RTL Group, has opened Luxembourg’s largest ground-based photovoltaic power plant on two areas of land used for RTL’s transmitters.

The project has been carried out over three years, installing 29,719 photovoltaic panels at BCE/CLT-UFA’s transmission sites in Beidweiler and Junglinster. The installation will produce about 10.5GWh electricity per year and will be able to cover the needs of more than 2,800 households, almost 11,000 people.

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RTL’s transmission sites have gone green with 29,719 solar panels

The site has been built so that grass can still grow underneath the solar panels (which are semi-transparent and can create energy on both sides using light reflected from the ground), and the area can be grazed by sheep. The panels have been installed on metal poles with no concrete used, so that the site can be returned to greenery with no lasting consequences in the future.

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Frederic Lemaire, CEO, BCE, said: “This achievement is the result of three years of a particularly remarkable work, based on a sustainable partnership approach between Enovos and BCE, thus supporting the Luxembourg government’s desire to commit to sustainable, ecological solutions, both for the concrete and immediate benefit of the populations but in compliance with the global Climate Agenda.”

Green energy should also mean biodiversity, as Anouk Hilger, head of renewable energies, Enovos, said: “If the presence of underground wiring around the [broadcast] antennas does not allow any agricultural or industrial exploitation of the land, it is nevertheless particularly suitable for the installation of photovoltaic panels. To preserve the fauna and flora, we have carried out numerous studies, mounted the panels by limiting the trenches and set up a grazing system to limit as much as possible any unnatural element in the meadow.”

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