The 48 children currently residing in the SOS Childrens Village, where they have found a new home, will benefit from the electricity yield for the next 20 years.
The system will produce approximately 11,000 kWh of electricity per year and can thus supply three four-person households. In addition, this environmentally friendly power production will cut around 7.2 tons of CO2 emissions.
The company is thus continuing their multi-level, sustained commitment to SOS Childrens Villages. "We already generate at least half of our sales abroad," says Karl Kuhlmann, CEO of S.A.G. Solarstrom, "which is why we considered it a logical step to take our fund-raising campaign beyond Germanys borders."
In 2009, S.A.G. Solarstrom in Stribro, Czech Republic, constructed a solar power plant with 13.6 MWp, which is to date still the largest in the country. In 2010, the company also set up a 5.1 MWp system in Kamenicna, which is scheduled to be connected to grid by the end of this year. "The project in Stribro is definitely one of our beacon projects of the last few years, which is why we specifically wanted to support an SOS Childrens Village in the Czech Republic this year," adds Kuhlmann. The fund-raising campaign also underscores the sustainability of the companys foreign expansion.
Brno lies in the south-east and is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, with a population of 400,000. The SOS Childrens Village in Brno-Medlanky was built in 2003. Forty eight children of various ages are currently living there in family groups. Ten SOS Childrens Village mothers and a further 13 employees look after the children and have given them a new home here.
Electricity yield as a sustainable donation
A PV system with a total output of 10.6 KWp and a market value of at least 30,000 was installed on south-facing office buildings between the end of November and the beginning of December. The electricity is being fed into the public electricity grid. The compensation of the annual electricity yield of 11,000 kWh is being used for the sole benefit of the SOS Childrens Village. meteocontrol GmbH has donated the required hardware for web-based monitoring of the PV system.
The Augsburg company is the global market leader in professional PV plant monitoring, with 16,000 monitored systems and a total output of 1.9 GWp. The system will be monitored in the monitoring portal SaferSun free of charge. The SOS Childrens Village can thus see how much electricity their system is producing at any time.
"More Energy for Children"
S.A.G. Solarstrom established the fund-raising campaign "More Energy for Children" to support the SOS Childrens Villages in 2008. The PV systems donated by the company produce green electricity and thus make a contribution to active environmental protection. The electricity yield, in turn, enables sustained financial support of the children in the SOS Childrens Villages.
In 2008, the company donated a 7.5 kWp system to the SOS Childrens Village Schwarzwald in Sulzburg, in 2009 a 17 kWp system to the SOS Childrens Village Württemberg in Schorndorf-Oberberken, and in 2010 the 10.6 kWp system to the SOS Childrens Village in Brno-Medlanky in the Czech Republic.
"The fund-raising campaign ideally reflects our requirement for multi-dimensional sustainability ecologically, economically and socially," explains Kuhlmann. "Thats why we want to continue this commitment in the future".
