Nowadays, it is nothing special anymore to own a photovoltaic system. The electricity fed into the grid has been remunerated for many years through the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). Consuming self-generated solar electricity is profitable anyway. There is a lot of unused roof space available for installation. And most importantly: photovoltaics is one of the most environmentally friendly ways of generating electricity [1].

So cp.max, as a company in the field of renewable energies, has to put up with the question: Why on earth did it take so long?

Indeed, we are somewhat ashamed that we are only now feeding our own electricity into the grid. However, there have been some difficulties that have repeatedly set back the planning. Although our company headquarters has a seemingly well-suited flat roof, the statics caused us difficulties. The building was planned by the previous owner as an efficient lightweight construction. This saves costs and material, of course, but makes it difficult to plan a PV system on the roof. We therefore had to have structural engineers meticulously check how much additional weight our roof could bear and in which areas ...

Fortunately, the result of the static test was more positive than expected: almost 30 kWp of module output found space above our offices. Currently, about a quarter of the electricity generated is enough to cover our own needs. We feed the remaining energy into the power grid.

If you want to take a look at the current generation of our PV system, you may follow this link.

Finally, an important note: This article is intended to encourage everyone to build their own PV system. Do you own an office building or a private house? A photovoltaic system is built with little effort, you hardly see it and you don't hear it. The investment pays off financially and photovoltaics is one of the most environmentally friendly ways of generating electricity.

_{[1] Deutsche Welle}