From now on, the Rheingoldhalle harnesses the power of the sun: a photovoltaic plant with a capacity of 129 kilowatts was installed and officially put into operation on the roof of the Mainz landmark in early July. With an annual production of about 123,000 kilowatt hours per year it covers the annual needs of about 30 households. The operator of the facility will be the Rio Energie GmbH & Co. KG, a joint venture of the Stadtwerke Mainz and the juwi group. The juwi Solar GmbH needed less than six weeks for the construction.
The clean power that is generated by the nearly 550 solar panels by manufacturer Schott Solar is fed into the general power grid, thus avoiding some 84 tonnes of harmful carbon dioxide per year. The project was initiated by the Wirtschaftsjunioren Mainz (Rheinhessen), who also held the National Conference of the Wirtschaftsjunioren Germany in the Rheingoldhalle at the beginning of September – a carbon neutral conference thanks to the solar energy plant.
Motivated by the construction of the solar energy plant, the Congress Centrum Mainz will continue its sustainable path and has developed the package “greenplus”. Customers can now choose the modules for their sustainable event. In addition to the solar savings certificates from the MVB, there is also an event ticket offered by the Deutsche Bahn, an electric Smart for the duration of the event or the possibility to have sustainable catering, to name just a few examples.
Christopher Sitte, chairman of the Congress Centrum Mainz GmbH and Economic Affairs officer of the City of Mainz: “With the photovoltaic panels on the roof of the Rheingoldhalle and the “greenplus” product package we are the first convention centre that can offer its customers a completely CO2-free event”.
