Europe’s Largest Port Goes Solar

Late last month, Rotterdam’s port, the largest port in Europe, completed the installation of a rooftop solar power system.

frigoCare, a subsidiary of logistics company Samskip, announced that it installed around 3,100 solar panels for a rooftop system under its Sustainability Strategy. The system was installed by Dutch renewable energy company Zon Exploitatie Nederland.

The solar power system is spread across 7,500 square meters and will generate 750,000 kWh electricity every year, making it the largest rooftop solar power system in the city of Rotterdam. The electricity generated will be enough to meet the annual power demand of 250 homes.

The annual solar power generation in Rotterdam will increase to 3.75 GWh, with the share of this rooftop system at a massive 20%. The city plans to generate 20 GWh of solar power by 2018 and 1,000 GWh by 2030.

The solar panels have been placed at the cold storage facility of frigoCare, which consumes 2.7 GWh electricity every year. So, the rooftop system will meet around 28% of this power demand. Any excess electricity, if available, will be injected into the local grid.

frigoCare Managing Director, Jan Bouman, says: “When we upgraded our cold-store, which is primarily used to store frozen fish, we wanted to make it as environmentally friendly as possible. The partnership with ZEN has enabled us to reduce our annual carbon emissions by around 325 tonnes a year.”

The solar panel installation, which cost around 1 million euros, was completed towards the end of July this year. It is expected that this investment will be recovered within a 10-year payback period.