Biggest floating solar pv farm

This is the biggest floating solar pv farm in Belgium. The plant is built on five hectares of a lake created by sand extraction and owned by sand and minerals company Sibelco in Dessel, Antwerp province. More than 17,000 solar panels are mounted on a floating structure of seven hectares. The plant has a capacity of 7 MWp, corresponding to the annual consumption of around 1,500 households. The floating array is expected to generate sufficient electricity to meet around 80% of the extraction site’s power demand. The energy generated by Sibelco is used for the extraction of sand, a raw material for producing the glass of solar panels.

Exactly one month ago, the first pipeline of the Antwerp North Heat Network was symbolically installed. From 2024 onwards, Boortmalt will be able to produce malt with the heat from this network, which has a capacity of about 150 Gwh/year and consists of well-insulated underground pipes. In a second phase, Fluvius will link a district heating network to this, allowing schools, public buildings and 3,200 social housing units to source their heat supply more sustainably. This means significant savings on fossil fuels and a reduction in CO2 emissions by as much as 80,000 tonnes a year. Our teams were appointed to obtain the permit for the construction and exploitation of the North Heat Network.