Langenenslingen: Groundbreaking ceremony for Baden-Württemberg’s largest solar park

Karlsruhe / Langenenslingen. There is still not a great deal to see on the site to the south of the district of Wilflingen in Langenenslingen. Since the beginning of February, however, it has been home to the construction site for the largest solar park in Baden-Württemberg. With 80 megawatts (MW) of installed output, the plant that EnBW will build and operate here will be capable of generating enough solar power to supply around 30,000 households with electricity. It is set to enter into operation from mid-2025. The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by a group representing local citizens. Biberach’s District Administrator Mario Glaser and Langenenslingen’s Mayor Andreas Schneider accepted EnBW’s invitation.

District Administrator Mario Glaser underlined the importance of the solar park for the district and beyond: “With this solar park, we are putting Langenenslingen firmly on the map and signaling that it has a key role to play in the energy transition in Baden-Württemberg. Our region is showing how sustainable, local energy generation and community life are intertwined.” This point was also emphasized by Langenenslingen’s Mayor Andreas Schneider: “As a small district, we are actively shaping the energy transition here at local level, while at the same time strengthening our community, which will benefit from the revenues over the coming decades. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the local council and the municipal council for their foresight and the unanimous decisions that led to this major project becoming a reality.”

Work on the land-use planning process and securing the site for the project was carried out by EnBW in close conjunction with the project developer SolNet GmbH. The user contract for the site was signed in March 2020. Thorsten Jörß, who is responsible for developing solar park projects at EnBW, said: “The fact that we are able to build our largest solar park in Baden-Württemberg here is also thanks to the owner of the land, Franz Freiherr Schenk von Stauffenberg.” He has made around 80 hectares available for the solar park, an unusually large area for Baden-Württemberg. The building permit was secured in June 2023. “Even a project as big as this can be realized swiftly if everyone pulls together as a team,” noted Thorsten Jörß. All municipal and local council resolutions were passed unanimously. Langenenslingen’s Mayor Andreas Schneider worked especially hard to make sure that the necessary approval processes progressed quickly. For example, the municipality convened round-table talks involving the district office, the municipality itself and EnBW in order to work through various points together in an efficient manner. Holding discussions in this format made it possible to answer questions swiftly, share information directly and take the necessary steps quickly.

Even before the official groundbreaking ceremony, EnBW had already begun preliminary construction work for the solar park on the site. The substation used to feed the solar power into the 110-kilovolt grid will be built in 2025. Commissioning and production of the first kilowatt-hours are planned for June 2025.

Once operational, the solar park is expected to cut carbon emissions by around 54,500 metric tons per year. Various compensatory measures will preserve the existing habitats of the native animal species. To this end, landscape conservation measures were specified in the land-use planning process. Besides sowing seeds on the site, these measures include developing grassland for a large number of different species, planting a variety of shrubs, hedges and trees, and creating stepping stone biotopes. The solar park will be built and operated without any funding under the Renewable Energies Act (EEG).

About EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG
With a workforce of around 28,000 employees, EnBW is one of the largest energy supply companies in Germany and Europe. It supplies electricity, gas and water together with infrastructure and energy-related products and services to around 5.5 million customers. In the company’s transformation from a traditional energy provider to a sustainable infrastructure group, the expansion of renewable energy sources and of the distribution and transportation grids for electricity and gas are cornerstones of EnBW’s growth strategy and the focus of its investment spending. Between 2023, and 2025, EnBW plans gross investment totalling €14 billion, largely in accelerating the implementation of the energy transition. By the end of 2025, renewables are set to account for more than half of EnBW’s generation portfolio. The aim is to phase out coal by the end of 2028. These are key milestones on the way to the company being carbon-neutral by 2035. www.enbw.com