Glossary

Engineering, Procurement and Construction. An EPC contractor takes single-point responsibility for planning, purchasing and building a power plant and hands it over ready to operate. In German this role is called Generalunternehmer.

A turnkey plant is delivered complete and ready to operate. The client signs one contract and receives a finished plant including grid connection and commissioning.

Independent Power Producer: a private company that owns and operates power plants and sells the electricity, usually under a power purchase agreement. IPPs are typical clients of EPC contractors.

Power Purchase Agreement: a long-term contract in which a buyer, for example a utility or an industrial company, commits to purchase the electricity from a plant at an agreed price.

Solar plants in the megawatt range that feed into the medium- or high-voltage grid via a transformer station and substation, as opposed to rooftop systems for self-consumption.

Battery Energy Storage System: large battery storage that stores solar power for the evening, stabilises the grid or bridges outages. Often co-located with solar parks or industrial plants.

A power supply that combines solar, battery storage and, typically, diesel generators. A controller prioritises solar and battery power and runs the generators only when needed.

Megawatt peak: the nominal capacity of a solar plant under standard test conditions. A 10 MWp plant in a sunny region typically generates 16 to 20 GWh of electricity per year.

Operations and Maintenance: the operation, monitoring, cleaning and repair of a plant after commissioning. We hand over complete O&M documentation and train local staff for it.

The technical rules of a grid operator for connecting a power plant: voltage, frequency, reactive power, behaviour during faults. Compliance is verified before a plant is allowed to feed in.

Solar plants on farmland designed so that crops or livestock can continue underneath or between the module rows.

Using the solar power directly in the building where it is generated instead of feeding it into the grid. The higher the self-consumption share, the higher the savings.