Over 60,000 solar panels have already been installed at the construction site of the Mysłowice photovoltaic farm (73 per cent completed) with the assembly of steel structures nearing completion (97 per cent completed) as of Tuesday 21 February.
The solar farm is being built by the Polish power generator and distributor, TAURON and once completed, will be the company’s largest solar power plant with a target capacity of 100 megawatts (MW). In its first stage of operations, TAURON plans to launch the farm’s 37 MW capacity with first the energy generation expected to commence later this year.
“We are accelerating the implementation of TAURON’s Green Turn, currently we have four wind farms under construction with a total capacity of over 140 MW and two photovoltaic farms with a total capacity of almost 150 MW,” said Paweł Szczeszek, President of the Management Board of TAURON. “Restoring post-industrial areas to their former function brings a double environmental benefit. On the one hand, the areas that have previously functioned as wastelands gain another life, on the other – they play an important role in the process of green energy production,” he added.
The solar farm, which began its construction in July 2022, is being built on a reclaimed combustion waste landfill. The ongoing construction of the installation with a capacity of around 37 MW is the first stage of the investment, with the aim to ultimately reach a capacity of around 100 MW.
Thirty-seven MW will consist of 82,500 solar panels with a power of 450 watt-peak each and a total area of 16 hectares (equivalent to 22 football fields). The farm will produce 39,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of green energy per year. This volume of electricity is the annual energy demand of a city with 50,000 residents, TAURON said. The production of energy from the sun reduces emissions by 30,000 tonnes of CO2 compared to generation from conventional coal-fired units, the company highlighted in its press release.
The farm will be connected to the 110 kilovolts (kV) power switching station belonging to TAURON Dystrybucja and located at the Jaworzno power plant. Three parallel 110 kV cable lines will be laid. The line will run entirely underground. For this purpose, it is necessary to perform drilling, including under the railway embankment, Promienna Street in Jaworzno and the Przemsza River, which runs near the farm, the company said.
“The drilling under Przemsza, which has already been completed, is 104 m long and runs three metres below the bottom of the river. Thanks to the recruitment of a specialised company, all the work was done in one day. The diameter of the drilling is about 40 centimetres,” said Wojciech Przepadło, Vice-President of TAURON Inwestycje.
