60 Tons Less CO2 per Year

The foundation board members Peter Drews (from left) and Irene Cramer as well as university chancellor Dr. Oliver Fromm.

The systems are located on the buildings of the humanities and cultural sciences, the Institute of Music and the Engineering Sciences I building on the Campus at Holländischer Platz, and they have a combined installed capacity of around 131 kWp. The university expects a yield of over 105,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and a saving of about 60 tons of CO2 annually.

The new modules are part of an expansion plan with which the university intends to cover a significant portion of its electricity consumption with solar energy. The Kassel-based cdw foundation is supporting the project with around one million euros. The university is investing savings in electricity costs in additional photovoltaic systems and other sustainability projects.

"Despite all the acute challenges we are facing, we must not forget that we have the ongoing task of making our economy more sustainable," warned the Chancellor of the Kassel University, Dr. Oliver Fromm. "As a university, we have set ourselves some ambitious goals here, and these new photovoltaic systems are a further building block. Our thanks goes to the cdw foundation, which makes this possible".

"It is important to us as a foundation to move from knowledge to action. Limiting climate change is the most urgent task of our time, and a decentralized energy supply based on renewable energies is one of the most important building blocks in this process," explained Peter Drews, Chairman of the cdw Foundation. "The energy turnaround must now be implemented. The region of Northern Hesse has the goal of supplying electricity, heat and mobility with 100 % renewable energies by 2040. The Kassel University is one of the most important players in this process, both as a research institution and as an acting institution".

Together with two already running systems on the roofs of the engineering school and the student house, the university now operates systems with a total installed capacity of around 345 kWp, a production of around 290,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and a saving of 167 tons of CO2 per year. Further systems are planned. In the final stage of construction, all systems together will produce about 600,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year (with a demand of about 23,000 megawatt hours) and save more than 350 tons of CO2.

Press contact:

University of Kassel

Sebastian Mense
Communication, press and public relations
Tel.: +49 561 804-1961
E-Mail: presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de