In the picturesque municipality of Oude IJsselstreek, near the village of Netterden, significant progress is being made on the realization of Solar Park De Zonnewilg. This solar park will feature approximately 27,000 panels, generating 16.3 MWp, which is enough to provide electricity to about 5.600 households. One of the most critical milestones in this project's process was achieved: financial close.
Financial close means that all the necessary financing for the project has been secured, allowing construction to proceed without interruption. From this point on, materials for the construction can be ordered. Due to long delivery times, it is important that this happens as soon as possible. "It was very enjoyable to draft the contracts and ensure that everything important to De Zonnewilg was included," says Liesbeth ten Brink from Green Trust Consultancy. Liesbeth was involved in drafting the contracts with contractors, the construction and maintenance of the solar farm, and arranging the insurance.
Sun by Wind
The solar panels of De Zonnewilg will be installed at Windpark Den Tol, which consists of nine impressive wind turbines that generate 80,000 MWh of electricity, enough for about 25,000 households. These wind turbines have been operational since June 2022. Since there was space between the turbines and capacity available on the wind park's cable, the decision was made to install solar panels at the wind park. Sun and wind complement each other well: often, the sun shines when it is calm, and vice versa.
Cable Pooling and Landscape Integration
Solar farm De Zonnewilg is a unique project. It utilizes cable pooling, the sharing of a single network cable, allowing the solar park to connect to the existing park cable of Windpark Den Tol. This means that both the wind and solar parks deliver energy to the same substation, eliminating the need to build a new substation. Additionally, the design of the solar farm takes natural and landscape integration into account. Measures have been taken to ensure good light penetration and space under the panels to promote soil life. On the southern side of the solar farm, a wide nature strip of 16 meters will be created, and on the east and west sides, hedgerows will be planted. These measures improve biodiversity and enhance movement opportunities for animals.
Collaboration
“At De Zonnewilg, we collaborated with WindUnie. They led the project. We also worked with the same initiators and notary as at Windpark Den Tol. This was incredibly nice because we already know each other. The collaboration went very smoothly,” explains Lisa Hoffard. Lisa, among other things, ensured that the existing land agreements were translated into notarial deeds. "It was very enjoyable for me to practically implement new developments, such as the shared cable, and to devise new legal constructions for this," says Lisa.
Not only did Lisa and Liesbeth from Green Trust work on De Zonnewilg, but Lieuwe Dragt and Peter Schoch worked on the financing, Jeroen Boerkamps assisted in negotiating agreements, and Bojan Antonijevic created the drawings.
WindUnie led the project, had a significant role in the advisory work, and drafted the cable pooling agreement that Lisa also worked on. As Lisa indicated, the collaboration with the other parties went very well. “Frank Simmes, one of the initiators, played an important role in making the financial close possible,” Lisa explains. ASN helped as a financier of the windpark to enable cable pooling, ING is the financier of the solar farm, Van Dijk De Jongh handled the notarial part, WindUnie and several landowners are the initiators, and the builder/contractor is ProfiNRG.
Looking Ahead
The construction of De Zonnewilg is expected to start after this summer. Green Truster Stan Reinders will oversee the construction. The Solar farm is expected to be completed by early 2025.